Over the years, I have had the opportunity to be the audience when celebrities spoke, or even shake hands with a few. I heard Anderson Cooper speak or Natalie Merchant sing.
Authors I have met include Robert Jordan the fantasy writer, David Baldacci the thriller writer, and C.J. Box the mystery writer. All interesting people in their own way. Perhaps the most famous person I have met is Henry Winkler.
I went to see him because he was the Fonz! Anybody remember that? I got a chance to introduce myself, shake his hand, and tell him that I enjoyed his work on Happy Days. He thanked me, and that was the end of our encounter. I can imagine he appreciated my words for a few seconds, then I was gone from his memory, even though I will remember those moments for the rest of my life. But I do not know him.
On Philippians 3:10-12, Paul speaks of knowing Christ. Not having met him at a convention, not shaking his hand at a Sunday meet-and-greet, but knowing him. Knowing Christ is important for Paul.
The idea of knowing is found other places as well. In John 17:3, Jesus desires for us to know him. 1 John 4:8: “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” And here in Philippians, just two verses earlier (3:8), Paul cries: “I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.” Then he builds up to verse 10. I want to gain Christ, verse 8. I want to be found in Christ, verse 9. I want to know Christ, verse 10. This knowing is a journey. Nothing around us is as important as beginning to know Christ and to grow more and more in the knowledge of Christ, and to have such an intimacy with Christ that he is at the center of my thoughts, my words, my life. Lofty goals, aren’t they? Can we like Paul, hope to meet them? Is it possible to know Christ, and if so, how? Paul lays it out for us.
Paul says he wants to know Christ through the power of his Resurrection. Paul believed with everything in him in the Resurrection of Christ. So we too must believe! But here in Philippians 3, he takes it even further. The power of his Resurrection. There is power in the risen Christ, there is power in finding and following him. We have power for daily living. I need this kind of power, and so do you. Paul needed that kind of power to survive the life he lived for Christ.