It was written on the bulletin lying on the chair in front of me during the opening song and it caught me by surprise-- Paul's voice in my head saying slow the words that I have only heard fast

To know Christ

And then I am sitting down, I am flipping to that book that has held me tight this year and I am reading it with a voice that is sure and strong and I am bowing head.  Yes, I want to know Christ.  And I am understanding what that meant to this man, I am understanding the cost of those words that we have made simple and I am vowing to not stop at knowing Him, I am vowing to practice in the sharing of sufferings, the death, and the resurrecting.  I am praying a prayer of surrender with great weightiness and finally I am stilled inside.



I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.  Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal 

but I press on