Warrior's Creed: All to the King!

"Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." -Philippians 3:8

Many people spent literally their entire life trying to find what matters. In our pursuit of power, money, fame, position, or significance, we tend to give all just to achieve an aspiration, an ideal. We study hard in schools to gain greater advantage. We work our hands real hard to achieve favor from men or from social structures that seem to control our will.

And this is not wrong. But it will be so eventually especially if we miss the chance to anchor our purpose on what will truly matter in the end. It will be very wrong if in our pursuit of the things we thought is essential, we end up losing our very life.

Because reality is, we now seem to live in a time where material things and the search for personal satisfaction get to be the center of our existence. We live in a constant chase of our own life.

There's no end to our pursuit of personal fulfillment.

But at the end of the day, what of these things? Will I rest my assurance on something that doesn't last. Will I entrust my future on something temporary. Will I find significance in things that are only good by the measures of this world, but are only fleeting shadows when compared with eternity?

As a warrior in the Unshakable Kingdom and servant of the Sovereign King, I must strive to be better than all these meaningless pursuit of the self. I must anchor my confidence on my Commander-in-Chief, to never question His strategies and His means. For I know that it was He who has given the call, it is He who supplies and empowers, it is He who will overcome.

The apostle Paul, one of the greatest warriors in history, no less exemplified a life that is fully surrendered to the King's cause. But there is much more to his warrior journey than that.

Prior to encountering his King one time on that road to Damascus, he was one of the most notorious persecutor of Christians. He has given his life for the purpose of seeing Christianity die in those early days. He was very zealous of destroying communities of believers. He existed to inject fear among those who follow the King. He was a passionate murderer and torturer of Christians.

In fact, when he encountered the King on the road to Damascus, he was on his way to persecute the Christian community there. But God has a greater plan. God has prepared a detour for him. And he was never the same person again.

What is amazing in Paul's warrior journey is not his extraordinary "conversion" nor the supernatural events surrounding his initiation to the Christian faith. It was only a small fraction of the entire story.

It was rather his "transformation" that is most amazing and most encouraging. It was his single-minded focus to serve his King that is worth-telling in many generations to come. It was his passionate, consistent denying of the self that is worth-emulating.

All people, at some point, can always be converted to a certain cause or a belief. But sadly, not all conversion leads to loyalty or the birth of commitment and purpose. We can be converted to the Christian faith without really being transformed from within. Transformation of the individual is the effect of following Christ. That is what real Christianity means: transformation of the entire being through the grace of God; not just an outward and physical conversion.

The King is calling transformed individuals, not converts.

I am thankful for Paul's transformation. I am inspired by his warrior journey and testimony. It is encouraging to know that a person like Paul--with high educational attainment, great wealth, lofty social position, and has claim all to himself can throw it all away for the sake of following Christ. He literally left everything just to know and serve his King (Philippians 3). Paul went on to become one of the greatest of Jesus' disciples, and wrote 13 influential epistles in the New Testament! All for the glory of God!

On a personal note, the appeal of self-fulfillment can still be attractive. But I know better now. I am comforted by the fact that if it is God's will, it is God's bill. This purpose that God has called me into is the one which will matter. Anything less is meaningless.

Nothing comes close to the joy and fulfillment of serving the King.

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To get a sense of Paul's personal encounter and the context of his warrior journey, walk with him on the road to Damascus.