You Can Do Anything for 5 Minutes!

            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.