Exhibit Me

             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 Jesus Christ took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14)

          Lord, how does a person work toward becoming “like Christ” without spending all one’s time focusing inward on oneself? How does one balance inward and outward life?

          About a week ago, I wrote the second quote above in response to something I had read or thought. The problem, of course, is my mental examination table and my tendency to spend a great deal of time fussing over how exhibit Me, or some small aspect of Me, matches up to exhibit Perfection. One problem, of course, is that Me never matches up to Perfection. But the general routine is I do something, or something happens, and I race back to the examination table to see what, if anything, has changed. Then I get disappointed and my focus narrows, as it tends to with even minor pains like disappointment, to the cause: exhibit Me. What’s wrong with me? How do I fix me?

          Sometime in the last 24 hours, part of the passage above showed up as the answer to the question. Not too long ago, I heard a version of a story I’ve heard many times, about someone being taught to recognize counterfeit money. He spent hours, days, and maybe even months counting and examining good money, because by being that familiar with the real thing, he would be able to recognize a fake.

          The solution to my problem, it would seem, is to forget about exhibit Me, and focus entirely on Exhibit Jesus, or at the very least, on the exhibits of Jesus as provided by others.