Shakespeare and Paul

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate"
Opening lines of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18.

"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.  I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him..."
Philippians 3:7-8

When we are in love everything but the focus of our desire pales in comparison.  In Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 we see a man so in love with a woman that even nature seems less beautiful.  In Philiappians we see Paul so in love with Jesus that all his work before knowing Jesus seems like junk.  Both men write of a love that changes their vision of the world.

Are you in love with Jesus enough that your vision of the world has changed?  Do you see the stuff of your life as rubbish compared to being in Christ Jesus your Lord?  Are you willing to rearrange your life to be centered on Christ or is your life too important to give to the Almighty? 

It's all about love.  When we fall in love with God our world is changed.  And guess what, He is worth the change.  Don't look at the junk we give up and wish that it was still our focus.  Rather, look at what we have.  Look at Jesus. 

The old hymn says:
"Turn your eyes upon Jesus/ look full in His wonderful face/
and the things of earth will grow strangely dim/ in the light of His glory and grace."

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate"

Shall I compare thee to the life I used to have?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

Jesus is more lovely than the junk we hold on to.  So "consider everything loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ" today.