the surpassing value

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 having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

Philippians 3:8-9

Paul understood the value of knowing Christ. He ordered his life around the pursuit of being found solely in His Savior. He traded it all for that eternal, abundant life in Christ. He was possessed by Jesus as His Lord and sought only to possess Jesus. He let everything else go and found everything through faith in Christ.

Paul was a man before he met Jesus who seemeed outwardly to have it all together. He was a wildly successful religious Jew, rising to leadership as a young man in Judaism. He was zealous for God's Law, but when Jesus got a hold of him on the Damascus Road, it all came crashing down as a righteousness of His own apart from Christ. And from that moment on, Paul sought to find the righteousness that alone comes from Jesus by faith. He was turned from self-driven religion in his thinking to faith in the saving work and life of Christ.

I too must see Jesus as my surpassing value. He is more important than my sense of usefulness in ministry, more important than my family or home, more important than how people see me. More important than money, or possessions, or fulfillment by people. Jesus is what I want. His surpassing value makes everything else a garbage dump for me. I want to be found in have my life in Christ. This is true Christian "spirituality" -- life only in Christ filling my life in all ways, at all times, so that all I have is only valuable because He is in it. Christian living lives with Christ as the focus of life in every way possible.