by Caroline Speas
Philippians 2:5-11 - "In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
In one of the churches my dad pastored, I remember the different Sunday school classes were supposed to come up with their own names. I was about 14 or 15 at the time, and the teen class I attended chose the name CHAOS. Ironically, it was probably the tamest teen class I ever attended. But the word itself stood for Christ Honored and Others Served. I’ll be honest, I think we just chose it because it was the word chaos, and we thought it was funny. I don’t know that we really changed our purpose as a teen class to suddenly make sure we were honoring Christ and serving others. I wish I could say that was the case.
Throughout the years, though, I’ve learned that when our lives are focused on honoring Christ and serving others – above all else – it’s quite the opposite of chaos. The world likes to tell us it’s chaos. It just doesn’t make sense to expend our time and energy living for someone we “can’t even prove exists.” And it certainly doesn’t make sense to give SO much to others that we do not make sure we’re taking care of ourselves. But the truth is when our main priority in life is to make the decisions God wants us to make, when we focus our hearts on Him and we worship Him in all we do, true, unexplainable peace comes.
And when we think of the needs of others and learn to deny ourselves in order to serve others – as Christ did – true, unexplainable peace comes. So, I hope 2020 is full of total CHAOS for you – Christ Honored and Others Served. And I think you will find that where Christ is honored and others are served, there is peace.
Passage Reading Guide: Acts 17 & Psalm 46