Living the Upside Down Life (by Sarah Scott)

Do you ever find that we live in a world of opposites? Much like Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass” where Alice finds that moving forward, moves her backward, to go right she must go left, to go up she has to go down, going fast is going slow. We too find that as Christians we are told to live the opposite to achieve the ultimate goals. To get love, give love; to be exalted, be humbled; to be first, be last. And all of this is in direct conflict with how the world appears to work. Its like we need to live an upside down life to receive the ultimate reward.

 

Many of you can probably relate with this situation, my job requires us to be reviewed periodically throughout the year and at the end of the year all of our reviews are compiled and reviewed by our leadership to determine our annual rankings and your overall impact on the firm. In order to be ranked we are compared to our peers to determine who out performed who. In the first years that I was with the firm, I found that I had an incredibly difficult time getting my annual review to match the work I was doing because I was not really great at self-promotion, but what I quickly found was that folks that moved faster had a tendency to not just self-promote but they had a way of putting down others. I just couldn’t bring myself to fully understand how people could act that way and for a long time, I wasn’t able to succeed within the firm because I couldn’t bring myself to think that way. I didn’t believe that I needed to highlight other people’s flaws or diminish their efforts just to make me look better. I felt that being a team player, being valued by my clients and helping to coach others should have spoken for itself but I found that it didn’t and in the long run I was being pushed aside or delayed my promotions because I wasn’t willing to do what other folks were willing to do.

 

So what was I supposed to do? How do I not fall into the trap of doing what everyone else is doing so I can get ahead, get the promotion, get the better salary which will ultimately lead to better things for my family? Paul tells us in no uncertain terms that we are not to “push your way to the front; don’t sweet talk your way to the top”. How are we supposed to be humble and put ourselves last in order to be first? How do we justify that in today’s world where none of that really seems to jive? Thankfully Paul’s letter to the Philippians helped give a step-by-step guide that will allow us to be able to see what we can do and not only that, but will tell us what the reward will be if we can focus on something that’s well beyond the rewards that we would receive today.

 

At the end of the day Paul says that it all comes down to love and the first part of the passage from Philippians talks about how we should behave towards one, the passage says: “agree with one another, love each other, be deep spirited friends don’t push your way to the front, don’t sweet talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourself long enough to lend a helping hand.”

 

Just listening to these words. Don’t they feel like they are the exact opposite of how this world works? All you have to do is look at social media or the news to see how this passage is truly in conflict with the world, especially this time of year. We certainly don’t agree with one another and we don’t disagree with any grace. We don’t seek to understand or love each other. Lets pause for moment, what does Paul really mean what he’s asking us to love one another?

 

In the second letter we read today from Paul to the Corinthians he outlines very clearly to us what it means to love, lets read the words again and I want you to think about your Facebook newsfeed or the news or any other type of social interaction you have. I want you to really think about the words and think about whether or not we all live in a Christian life:

 

Love never gives up.

Love cares more for others than for self.

Love doesn’t want when it doesn’t have.

Love doesn’t strut,

Doesn’t have a swelled head,

Doesn’t force itself on others,

Isn’t always “me first”’

Doesn’t fly off the handle

Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others

Doesn’t revel when others grovel

Love takes pleasure in the flowering of truth

Puts up with anything

Trusts God always

Always looks for the Best,

Never looks back,

But keeps going to the end.

Love never dies.

 

As I read through this I can easily hit on a few of these that are just not part of our public lifestyle today. Could you image what this (or any) presidential race would look like if we did all of these things. Specifically consider if we didn’t keep score of sins, fly off the handle, put ourselves first and revel when others groveled. What might it look like if Trump had to help Hilary get ahead or Hillary to help Trump or better yet, what if they helped the other candidates get ahead of them?? It would be a much different election season don’t you think? It probably wouldn’t be as newsworthy. If everyone lived with these guidelines in mind, what kind of news programs do you think we would see at night?

 

But lets bring this back home. We can’t control everyone, only ourselves and we can hope that our actions/reactions inspire change in others.

 

Paul then continues the passage to give us the perfect example of living the upside down life, Jesus. I love this passage that describes Jesus, I think it beautifully describes his life and why what he did was so important.

Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.

 

To live a life like Jesus, such a lofty goal, can anyone actually accomplish this? Whether we can or not isn’t the point, we have been commanded that this is what we need to do. Of course its not something that will happen overnight or even within a few weeks or years. This is a lifetime pursuit and we need help. We can get this help through daily reading of the bible, listening to praise music, being in fellowship with other Christians who encourage you in your walk with the Lord and spending time with the Lord in prayer.  Whatever it is that you decide to do you should do at least one thing every day that helps you to build your faith.

 

Have you ever tried to lose weight? I’ve been on this particular journey many times and I know I’m one who falls pray to the idea that I want everything to happen all at once. I believe I will be that rare person who will loss 5 lbs a week, every week until I’ve lost the weight. And without fail, every time I enter into a weight loss journey I feel like I’ve failed right from the start because I try to accomplish more than is reasonable. Now, I’m back at this again and trying to make small changes in my life everyday. And you know what? Its working. I’m only losing about a pound a week, but I’m already finding that by taking a slower pace the changes I’m making are becoming a part of my everyday life. And that’s what you want to happen with your life in Christ. Small things everyday that get woven into your being.

 

Finally Paul wraps up this passage with a reminder of what we will receive if we can live our lives upside down. Maybe its not the promotion or earthly rewards, but something far better. We will be exalted in the eyes of God.  It’s a very long term goal and we will need to sacrifice our earthly rewards to get there, but isn’t it worth it? And don’t you think we might be able to help create a world that might be a little better to wait in if we all demonstrated how wonderful the upside down life is?

 

So I want you to ask yourself, are you here to serve or are you here to be served? Is your attitude like the world’s or is it like Christ’s? Are you going through the motions of service or are you becoming a servant? The example has been set; the call is clear. All that remains today is your response, your decision, your commitment. Will you live the upside down live or not?