It is amazing where your mind wanders and the
connections it makes between things that should be totally unrelated. I think it was my friend Lee that said one
time, “You can do anything for five
minutes.” It is strange that this phrase
would stick in my mind at all. It is
even stranger that as I read Philippians 4 today my mind would connect this
phrase with verse 1.
Philippians
is an amazing book about having a Christ centered mindset. Throughout this letter to the Christians in
Philippi, Paul, the author and apostle, shares much with his readers about how
a Christ centered mindset has affected his life as he faces torture, prison,
and his possible death.
As the
letter winds down in chapter 4, Paul challenges his readers to “stand firm thus in the Lord.” Paul knows that it will not be easy to be a
Christian in the world. Often the values
presented in the Bible will not match up to those of culture. This will cause at minimum exclusion from
parts of society but possibly even torture and death. To live for Christ will
not be easy and those who claim to be Christians will have to strive hard to
stand firm in what they believe.
How then can
these people, and us today, hope to stand day after day and year after year? The answer lies in the verses at the end of chapter 3.
(Remember the original biblical texts did not have chapter breaks.) Paul uses
the word, therefore, at the beginning of verse 1 to tie it back to these
previous verses. In these verses, he celebrates that the Christian’s true home is in heaven, where one day we will live with Christ in glorified bodies. Thus, the Philippians can stand firm in this
life because they know it does not last forever and they have an eternity of
joy and pleasure in heaven to look forward to.
I have heard the analogy before of
standing on a beach. As you look one
direction, the beach stretches as far as you can see. As you turn the other direction, the beach
stretches as far as you can see. You
then bend down and pick up one tiny grain of the sand. The size of this grain seems insignificant
compared to the sand on the beach. In
the same way, our life is a breath compared to eternity. No matter how tough life is, it is barely
anything compared to the bliss of heaven.
So how does Lee’s phrase come into
this? At the beginning of the summer, I
began to run regularly and for distance.
Anyone who runs for distance knows that it is grueling and the farther
you go the worse it gets. As you get close
to the end of your run, the pain gets to be almost unbearable. On a very difficult run, you almost get to a
point where you want to just lie down on the road and let a car hit you and end
it all. (These are the times that try
men’s souls.) One trick I use to push
through this wall is to look at how much time I have left to run and repeat
Lee’s phrase; “I only have ten minutes
left. I can do anything for ten minutes.”
Then, “I only have five minutes left.
I can do anything for five minutes.”
The pain might be intense but relief is only five minutes away.
Paul is saying the same thing to
his readers and to us. Life is short
compared with the glory of eternity.
Stand firm in your faith. When
you do not fit in and others oppose you, it will be grueling and may even be
literally painful. However, you can do it. You do not have much further to go. Relief is coming soon and will last much
longer, making the pain seem insignificant. Keep standing up for Christ. You can do anything for five minutes.
