Draw Near – 365 Guides to Greater Intimacy with GodSample

PROPHETIC POEM

After Dag Hammarskjold's untimely death in an airplane crash, friends found a prophetic poem in his family Bible. Hammarskjold had translated it when but a schoolboy. The poem simply said:

The day you were born, everybody was happy--
you cried alone.
Make your life such, that in your last hour
all others are weeping,
And you are the only one without a tear to shed!
Then you shall calmly face death,
whenever it comes.

Hammarskjold so lived...and the world wept at his passing.
Preoccupied with Christ's resurrection, Paul seemed to stretch so he might be worthy of the great price paid for his salvation. He admitted that he had not yet attained a state of perfection but was seeking daily to be led of the Spirit and to grow in the Lord. He added that he forgot past mistakes and failures, and I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:19).

Paul's honesty and healthy ambition inspire us in our pilgrimage. The wise person is the one who strives toward perfection in Christ. Although we may not be perfect, we are daily growing up into Christ. May we be like Paul who said: And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith... (Philippians 3:9).