The Other Phil

Earlier this week I was reading in Philemon and was really encouraged by the Lord and what He's been doing in my life. On the side, I am amazed and instructed by Paul's tact as he handles a very delicate situation with grace and wisdom. But what really hit me was his statement to Philemon in verses 4-5, especially how Paul is thankful for Phil's "love for all the saints."

This is something that God has really been showing me in the past year or two and it's been exciting to see His hand at work. For quite a few years in campus ministry, there was a real feeling of "turfism" for me. I would never come out and say that we were in competition with each other, but somewhere deep down that's exactly how I felt. If another ministry was more successful, I would feel like a failure. If a student chose to get involved somewhere else, I would wrestle with feelings of inferiority. And any time I heard of the amazing things God was doing somewhere else, I would wonder what was wrong with me and why He wasn't doing those amazing things in our midst as well.

It's been a long process, and although I am well-versed in making a short story long (and a long story even longer) I'll zoom past all of that and just detail a few of the things that have happened recently. Instead of viewing others as competitors or rivals, the Lord has showed me that I can learn from them and we can be mutually encouraged by each other. I've been able to begin developing relationships with other campus ministers (both here at Northwest and at other campuses) that have proved to be incredibly useful in my life - for insight, encouragement, humility, instruction, and friendship.

It's very easy to draw lines in the Christian sand and divide the body into tiny pieces, rather than seeing what we have in common and Whose Kingdom we are all trying to promote. And more than anything else, I think that's what God has been developing in me - a Kingdom mindset. I now pray for those other ministers and the ministries they lead, because when one part of the body succeeds, we should all rejoice! And in the process I have begun to accept and even love the way God has made me to be - that I don't have to look like anyone else or be like anyone else, but that my best contribution to His Kingdom will be to fully surrender to Him, allow Him to work through me, and strive to become all that He designed me to be.