A Broken RecordSample

Paul's Record   

Take a moment and reflect on your life. When you look at your past do you see breaking points? Places of trials, failures, loss, suffering and doubt? What does your record look like? Most, if not all of us, will find places in our lives where we were broken and need healing. However, if there was ever a guy who had a broken record, it was the Apostle Paul. He shares the record of his life with us in his letter to the Philippian church. Let’s take another look at Paul’s record. 

He tells us first that he, because of his pedigree and his performance, was the best of the best. And even more, that his confidence in life was placed in his pedigree and performance. He did everything right – he was physically right, nationally right, tribally right, religiously right, legally right, spiritually right, and he was right in the eyes of those around him. By the standards of the world, his peers, and himself, he was the best. In fact, he was so zealous religiously that he was persecuting Christians and getting court orders to have them stoned to death. Talk about a broken record! His pride and ego were off the charts and he was having Christians killed because he was certain that he was right. I would not like to have known Paul when he was Saul, the Pharisee.

But now listen to Paul, the redeemed. He says that the things that were a gain in life were actually a loss. Why? Because they kept him from knowing and experiencing Christ deeply. In fact, he says that his pedigree and his performance were garbage because they became an obstacle to him to know Christ. To put it more simply, what he thought was gain was actually loss and what he lost was actually gain. Why? Because in his loss he came to know Christ deeply – the ultimate gain. 

If Christ can redeem Paul's broken record, then can He redeem mine? Yours? Absolutely, without a doubt – it is what Christ came to do. Now when you take stock of your broken record of life again, can you see Jesus and the cross healing the broken places… strengthening the broken places of your past? After all, that’s what a Savior does – He saves!