Hoagy Carmichael, the story goes, once decided to take up golf. Lessons were arranged with an instructor. At the first session Carmichael was patiently shown the basics of the game: how to hold the club, How to stand, how to swing, etc.
Finally, after a half hour of this, the instructor felt Carmichael was ready to drive a few toward the first hole. The ball was teed up. Hoagy stepped up to it, swung, then watched the ball sail down the fairway, bound onto the green and roll into the cup--a hole in one!
The instructor was dumbfounded. Hoagy flipped the club to a caddy with a jaunty motion, then turned to the still speechless instructor. "OK," he said casually, "I think I've got the idea now."
Philippians 3:12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
Church is today full of Pastors and folks who feel they know it all. It just seems that they have cracked the code and some also brag about it. Perhaps the Church in Philippi too had a sense of complacency creeping in. So Apostle Paul decided to illustrate his own example to teach the Church at large and tell them not to take it for granted.
So you come to Church and those settings for a while, get to hear a few things, you begin to learn and then suddenly you start teaching in one or the other platform. So in the journey from pew to the podium we attain quite a bit of experience. It surely validates us to minister unto others and help many on the way. But it should not reduce our dependence on God. It can never make us feel we have done enough and we know enough. Just as Apostle Paul reminds the Church in Philippi to press on, so should we every day press on to be and do for which Christ Jesus took hold of each one of us. Paul after all the knowledge and experience realized it’s way better to stay humble and rejoice by following Christ. Things become way simpler and sorted out when the Lord leads. So let’s not act as if we have all the idea. But even as we learn and we grow, let our attitude be, I haven’t got it yet….
Stanley Thomas Isac
Stanley is serving as the Pastor of Crossway Church in New Delhi, he can be reached at Pastorstanleytisac@gmail.com
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