In the movie “How to Train Your Dragon,” the hero – Hiccup – is in a tough spot. If you’re born into his town, you grow up to be a big, strong Viking who kills dragons. Hiccup is not big (a “talking fishbone”), and though he’s the chief’s son, he’s an outcast. As the movie unfolds, Hiccup manages to shoot down a “Night Fury,” the most feared dragon variety plaguing his village. Instead of killing it, he discovers that everything the Vikings know about dragons is wrong, and so he trains the dragon. His dad is… less than interested in a pet that dangerous, and considers his son a traitor for defending a dragon – the sworn enemy of his people. It’s not until the whole town is threatened with extermination that the grown-ups are willing to alter their worldview.
It’s a great movie, if you haven’t seen it – and it got me thinking Sunday as Clay described how God brought about a similar crisis to reroute Paul of Tarsus.
Paul (his Greek name; his Hebrew name was Saul) was born into a college town on the southeast coast of modern-day Turkey, into unique circumstances. His parents were strict Jews and also held Roman citizenship. Paul inherited both of these by birth, and took great pride in them – particularly in his Jewish religious and ethnic nationality. After his conversion, he described his identity this way:
If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. (Philippians 3:4-6)
Paul was “a Jew’s Jew,” and he was very proud of that. When a new sect began to threaten the purity of his people, Paul reacted swiftly.
For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. (Galatians 1:13-14)
So when Jesus revealed Himself to Paul as the risen Messiah, the promised one of Israel – it meant that everything he knew – everything he was! – had to be rethought. I’m not surprised he didn’t eat or drink for three days. I imagine he had to be convinced to eat and drink even after his sight had been restored. If that was truly Jesus – and Paul doesn’t seem to have been able to deny that it was – then it meant he only had two options: he could pretend it hadn’t happened, essentially plugging his ears (he may have even tried this one for a little while). Or he could turn traitor to all those who had known him, supported him. He would have to redefine how he understood everything in his world, and how he understood who he was himself.
Where is your identity? Yes, yes – I know the “right answer” is in Christ. But if you’re like me, that’s where you hope to get to someday. For now, your real identity is somewhere else. And it may be in very good things! For example: maybe you define yourself as a “wife and mother.” Or maybe you’re the provider, the husband who “brings home the bacon.” Maybe you’re really good at what you do – what if you suddenly couldn’t do that anymore? What if your husband left? Or what if you lost your job or your business failed? What if something fundamental changed and you could no longer outperform everyone around you? What kind of crisis would follow your worldview shattering like that? More importantly, how would you put the pieces back together?
Here’s how Paul did it:
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him… Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:7-9a, 12-14)
What are you most proud of about yourself? What would it take for you to truly consider it “rubbish” (the Greek word is pretty strong here) compared to knowing Jesus and “being found in Him?”
Or maybe you’re at one of those crisis points where your world has been shattered. You can’t define yourself in the same terms you used to. Like Paul, you’re slowly trying to put the pieces back together, and finding that the pieces don’t look much like the old picture of you on the box top. If that’s where you are, then take the advice from a guy who was there: “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call in Christ Jesus.”
For the Vikings of Burke and for Paul, it took a significant crisis that forced them to view their entire world differently. While many of us won’t (hopefully!) won’t have to go through anything so painful, some of us will. Whether God smashes your worldview or – like braces – slowly moves your identity where it needs to go, it’s never comfortable. The method might be different, but the goal is the same: what does it mean to define yourself “in Christ?” Getting that might require “turning traitor” to the thing you value most about yourself.
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