Resolution.

"For me to live is Christ; to die is gain." Philippians 1:21

If for me to live - ACTUALLY is Christ.... SHEWWWEEEE! giddy up with that thought! Ready for this? If for me to live is Christ - and this means YOU and ME, Believers in The Savior...then consider the miracle of our purpose in God before the foundations of the world began. Oh my heart! Consider the miracle of OUR birth and the miracle of our baptism, and consider that OUR Heavenly Father looked on and affirmed our calling! I can't take it! It's too good! And consider that our flesh and blood were purposed to bring God glory, and purposed to be a temple that would indeed be destroyed, raised up, and filled with the Spirit of God. Consider that we were given everything we need to do and accomplish His good and perfect will. WE were purposed to bring light to those who are in darkness, to bring healing to the sick, food to the poor and the widows, hope to the destitute, and the good news to those who are in bondage - so that they can be free. WE were purposed TO KNOW sorrow and suffering. WE were purposed to ENDURE temptation. WE were purposed to be VICTORIOUS over sin and futile thinking that destroys and tears down. WE were purposed to build up and restore that which evil has annihilated. Consider that our life is directed with precision by the God who gave it. The purpose of our life is sacrifice and IN THAT we are purposed to have joy and joy that is complete.

If for me and you, believer - to die is gain. Than we do not consider what we do not have or what we surrender more than who we are because of God the Father. If for me and you to die is actually gain, than every painful sacrifice is not for us alone, but for those we do not even see face to face - but for those who have gone before and those that come after - who one day we will know and embrace and dine with at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. If for us to die is gain, than we will not mourn as those who have no hope. We will rejoice with every cost and expense that leads us closer to our King and His riches - His treasures that we cannot comprehend or hold in flesh. By faith - we surrender in death our Spirit daily. We give up to God the searing pain, the ridicule, the loneliness, the taunting, the denial - not just by those who would corner themselves against us in battle as a very real enemy - but by those also who would even now call us friends to our faces and perhaps even mean it for today - for their own purposes. If for us to die is gain than we will expect that in our death - mourning will cease - and joy will come at the resurrection day and not a moment sooner - for even mourning will have its full purpose.

To die is gain if for me to live is Christ. In that thought I press toward the mark knowing full well I have not done near enough to die - nor near enough to live out my birth - my purpose in flesh and blood and the Spirit of God. I have not yet been all that He has purposed - and yet still I am - not for me BUT for the one who shaped me in my mother's womb - and molds me even now that I might long for His image in my own skin - in my own heart - that aches to understand "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain"; and yet will ache in each moment of clarity.

"I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death."
Philippians 1:20

Grace to us all. Much grace is given.