“Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1Cor.9:16)
Loving Jesus, I know that “to woe” is to express sadness, distress, and disappointment. As in, “Woe to me, I just broke off a 20 Brown Trout!” Or “Woe to me on steroids, for Duke just put a ‘beatdown’ on my Tar Heels.” Or “Woe to me, I just got a flat tire, and the Alison Kraus and Union Station concert starts in 20 minutes.”
But the Apostle Paul’s statement: “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!”—this is a form of “woe-ing” to be sought and celebrated, not dreaded and escaped. Indeed, it’s a glorious “Woe” to be so captured and enraptured with the Gospel that all of life is measured in terms of you, Jesus. For you ARE the Gospel—the good news of who you are and what you’ve done for us. So…
- May our joys be defined by the incalculable riches of the Gospel.
- May our thinking be shaped by the liberating truths of the Gospel.
- May our hope be fueled with the wondrous future of the Gospel.
- May our life-investments be tied to the advancing of the Gospel.
- May our peace grow from a deepening grasp of the Gospel.
- May our choices be determined by the priorities of the Gospel.
- May our longings be met by a greater experience of the Gospel.
- May our repentances be quickened by the grace of the Gospel.
- May our astonishment grow by the beauty of the Gospel.
- May our biggest Woe be over how little we “get” of the Gospel.
We don’t all stand in a pulpit or behind a lectern and preach/teach the Gospel; but we all look into a mirror which invites us every day to preach the Gospel to ourselves. Jesus, we need the Gospel everyday because we forget it every day. So Very Amen.
