Abased or Abounding–Interchangeably

As the big truck wound its way up the steep curves of a mountain road, a red car full of a variety of people stayed close behind. The driver of the truck waved happily at the driver and passengers in the red car; then as another curve was rounded the passenger in the truck waved vigorously at the red car. A bit behind was another car with the same destination—in fact, there was a little caravan of cars. This was a “crew,” a group of people who had come together for a period of time to do something that couldn’t be done if they weren’t together.

The “something” is a documentary film, one that we pray will say something strong to a world that has turned its back on truth. In the months of daily travel and work in a medium that is very new to some of us, we are seeing biblical truth enacted in a practical way day by day, over and over again. In this particular filming there is an amazing unfolding of what Christian life is all about.

The producer is the top man. Yet he is also the truck driver, and at times he is under the truck trying to find out why the oil is leaking. When the cameraman has set up his equipment in just the right spot and it is time for action, it is the director who barks out the orders to be followed not just by the soundman and the assistants, the script girl and the cameraman, but also by the producer. The producer must be willing to be ordered to dash off at a run to stop noisy people from walking by, or to stop a farmer from running his tractor for a few minutes, or to get something that was mistakenly left back in the truck. Later the director sits at a meeting where the producer is making decisions and giving orders.

As I sat in the red car watching the producer—that is, the truck driver—wave that day, I knew it was a hard and dangerous job to get that truck full of props, scaffoldings, clothing, camera equipment, and an amazing assortment of other things safely up the mountain. It struck me that the days ahead of us would be a living demonstration of what it means in some measure to be abused and to abound—interchangeably.

Is it beneath the dignity of a producer to be treated as an errand boy? Is it beneath the dignity of a director to go back up a mountain to get the truck when it had to be left behind because of a sudden storm? Is it unreasonable to ask the narrator to get up at 5:45 along with the rest of the crew to make use of the best morning light?

In Christian teaching about our “place” in life, the stress is on willingness for sudden changes, for interchangeable places, for giving orders or taking them, for being served or serving, for sitting at the table or washing floors. We are to be willing to change places gracefully—by his grace! God asks us to be ready for anything he has in his plan for us, and he does not give us a plan far ahead.

In making a film, one finds that changes are continually made in the schedule. Why? Because of weather and other unpredictable elements. Day by day, God’s children, too, ought to be ready for his sudden orders to go somewhere else, to do another thing.

Paul, writing to the Philippian church people, rejoices in their good care of him but acknowledges that they didn’t have the opportunity to do all they had hoped to do for him. Then he goes on: “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned in whatsoever state I am, to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Phil. 4:11–13).

We find out something of the extent of Paul’s abasement when we read Second Corinthians eleven. We know he knew real hunger and shipwreck, prison life for two years, cold and nakedness, dangers in cities as well as in the wilderness. Paul knew what he was talking about when he said he had learned to be abased. However, he tells the secret of being able to endure such excruciating experiences: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Only by experiencing the need of Christ’s strength and grace can we experience the rewarding fact that “my grace is sufficient for thee.”

Notice that when Paul says, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me,” this also applies to what he has just said, that he has learned “to abound” as well as “to be abased.” It takes the help of the Lord’s strength to “abound,” to be the director or the producer, and it takes his strength to be willing to be treated as a servant. God gives us a marvelous promise here, through Paul, of a delicate “adjuster” within us. We who, if we are willing to obey the Lord, are apt to be thrown around, back and forth, between abased and abounding can have this “adjuster” by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, and the help of the strength of Christ. It is meant to help us cope with difficulties and also with honors and responsibilities.

In First Corinthians 4 Paul writes: “I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake.… Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace; and labor, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless: being persecuted, we suffer it.… I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you.” What is the warning? It seems to me we are being told again that we must be ready for a quick interchange, to be abased and to abound, to be received by people wanting to hear what the Lord has for us to say, or to be “fools for Christ’s sake.”

Jesus our Lord and Master, our Director, Counselor, King, Saviour, himself showed us what quick changes we are to be ready for. He had been teaching, leading, instituting a new testament in this central moment of history as he led the disciples in the first Lord’s Supper. Yet it was at this gathering that he wrapped a towel around his waist, poured water into a basin, and began to humbly wash and dry the disciples’ feet.

After this, Jesus put into words his command: “If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them” (John 13:14–17).

In what practical ways are we showing the Lord, angels, demons, and people watching us that we are willing to be abused and to abound—interchangeably?

EDITH SCHAEFFER

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