Umptions and Uns
Do we make life harder than it has to be? Yes. Of this, I am certain. We complicate it with assumptions and consumptions and unforgiveness and unfulfilled longings and more. Oh, how free would we run without the weight and burdens of umptions and uns!
If we are in Christ, we should be free because He is the Way, the Truth and the Life and He has said that the Truth will make us free. So why are we still encumbered with umptions and uns? And why aren't we running free? I think it is because we embrace Him, grabbing on to the salvation He brings, then we say thanks, and turn right back around and continue in our self-absorbed, self-indulgent and self-defeating paths. So sad. We sentence ourselves to a life of drudgery when He has said that He came so that we might have life to the fullest!
Emily Dickinson wrote this: Best gains must have the losses' test to constitute them gains. What have we gained in knowing Christ if we haven't valued our gain by losses' test? It is easy to see loss in Christ's life and death. He gave up heaven and His throne to live here with us as a sort of roving vagabond to die a cruel and brutal death on a cross. We can measure gain by His loss because we gain heaven and relationship with God in His life and death. Yet I wonder how we can fully appreciate a gain when we aren't the ones who experience the loss.
Jesus said in Mark 8:36 "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world but forfeit his soul?" How, in this life, do we understand and value the loss of our own soul in order to understand and value the gain of eternity with Him? I don't even know exactly what my soul is or where to find it or what it looks like. Do you?
Paul said in Philippians 1:21 "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain" and in Galatians 2:20 he said, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me." That makes Paul sound so noble and valiant - larger than life in my mind. But when I think about it, I realize Paul didn't do anything noble or valiant to get to that place in his life and in his relationship with Christ. He simply simplified. He got rid of the umptions and uns. And that loss gave him perspective of his great gain of a life in Christ.
And he started running - kind of like Forest Gump. One day Paul put on the shoes of the gospel of the peace of reconciliation of man to God through Jesus Christ and he left every umption and un behind and just ran - toward God, with God, for God's purposes. And people ran with him and wanted to know why he was running. But unlike Forest, Paul kept running until his earthly body could run no more. From the moment of his conversion on the road to Damascus until his death, he ran free in Christ.
So back to the umptions and uns - what are they and how do we get rid of them, like Paul, so we can run free in Christ, truly knowing our gain? We lose the assumptions about who we are and about who others are. We quit assuming we know what others are assuming about us and what they think we might be assuming. And we simply run after God telling everyone what it is like and what we are seeing about Him and hearing from Him along the way, knowing that if they will lose their assumptions, they will be running free, too. And we lose the consumptions - the desires and cravings for more that leave us encumbered with too much obligation. We stop being indulgent consumers of worldly things that become heavy baggage in our run after God. Paul left everything behind to run - he had no phone, no lights, no motor car - not a single luxury. Yet this loss of consumption left him free to move around the world, running with the gospel of life so others could run in the same way. What a gain.
We also lose the un of unforgiven hurts. Paul saw that holding on to unforgiveness meant he was judging others and he knew that judgment did not belong to him. And he let go of thoughts about how others might judge him for who he was or had been. This left him free to run in the love of God and with that love for others so they could be free of judgments, too. And we lose the unfulfillments and stop looking back at what could have been or forward to what might be and find freedom to run in personally knowing the Truth that was, is and always will be, pointing others to Him along the way.
The amazing God that called Paul to Himself is calling us to Himself and saying, "Run, child! Run free of the umptions and uns that hold you back and weigh you down." How beautiful the gain of knowing Christ in this life becomes when we can measure its greatness by the losses of our umptions and uns. And run.
Psalm 119:32 - I run in the path of Your commands for You have set my heart free.
Hebrews 12:1 - Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
Picking up speed,
Amy
If we are in Christ, we should be free because He is the Way, the Truth and the Life and He has said that the Truth will make us free. So why are we still encumbered with umptions and uns? And why aren't we running free? I think it is because we embrace Him, grabbing on to the salvation He brings, then we say thanks, and turn right back around and continue in our self-absorbed, self-indulgent and self-defeating paths. So sad. We sentence ourselves to a life of drudgery when He has said that He came so that we might have life to the fullest!
Emily Dickinson wrote this: Best gains must have the losses' test to constitute them gains. What have we gained in knowing Christ if we haven't valued our gain by losses' test? It is easy to see loss in Christ's life and death. He gave up heaven and His throne to live here with us as a sort of roving vagabond to die a cruel and brutal death on a cross. We can measure gain by His loss because we gain heaven and relationship with God in His life and death. Yet I wonder how we can fully appreciate a gain when we aren't the ones who experience the loss.
Jesus said in Mark 8:36 "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world but forfeit his soul?" How, in this life, do we understand and value the loss of our own soul in order to understand and value the gain of eternity with Him? I don't even know exactly what my soul is or where to find it or what it looks like. Do you?
Paul said in Philippians 1:21 "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain" and in Galatians 2:20 he said, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me." That makes Paul sound so noble and valiant - larger than life in my mind. But when I think about it, I realize Paul didn't do anything noble or valiant to get to that place in his life and in his relationship with Christ. He simply simplified. He got rid of the umptions and uns. And that loss gave him perspective of his great gain of a life in Christ.
And he started running - kind of like Forest Gump. One day Paul put on the shoes of the gospel of the peace of reconciliation of man to God through Jesus Christ and he left every umption and un behind and just ran - toward God, with God, for God's purposes. And people ran with him and wanted to know why he was running. But unlike Forest, Paul kept running until his earthly body could run no more. From the moment of his conversion on the road to Damascus until his death, he ran free in Christ.
So back to the umptions and uns - what are they and how do we get rid of them, like Paul, so we can run free in Christ, truly knowing our gain? We lose the assumptions about who we are and about who others are. We quit assuming we know what others are assuming about us and what they think we might be assuming. And we simply run after God telling everyone what it is like and what we are seeing about Him and hearing from Him along the way, knowing that if they will lose their assumptions, they will be running free, too. And we lose the consumptions - the desires and cravings for more that leave us encumbered with too much obligation. We stop being indulgent consumers of worldly things that become heavy baggage in our run after God. Paul left everything behind to run - he had no phone, no lights, no motor car - not a single luxury. Yet this loss of consumption left him free to move around the world, running with the gospel of life so others could run in the same way. What a gain.
We also lose the un of unforgiven hurts. Paul saw that holding on to unforgiveness meant he was judging others and he knew that judgment did not belong to him. And he let go of thoughts about how others might judge him for who he was or had been. This left him free to run in the love of God and with that love for others so they could be free of judgments, too. And we lose the unfulfillments and stop looking back at what could have been or forward to what might be and find freedom to run in personally knowing the Truth that was, is and always will be, pointing others to Him along the way.
The amazing God that called Paul to Himself is calling us to Himself and saying, "Run, child! Run free of the umptions and uns that hold you back and weigh you down." How beautiful the gain of knowing Christ in this life becomes when we can measure its greatness by the losses of our umptions and uns. And run.
Psalm 119:32 - I run in the path of Your commands for You have set my heart free.
Hebrews 12:1 - Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
Picking up speed,
Amy
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