Praise!

It is quiet around here tonight.  Everyone turned in early.  Monday mornings sure are more fun if we can make that happen.  I am writing at the kitchen table and there are signs of the school year everywhere I look.  My oldest has a textbook open. I would be lying if I said I knew what the subject was by what I can read next to me.  It looks horribly complicated and resembles something like math and science with a lot of reading combined into one.  My other high school kiddo has a “Levels of Organization” project in the works.  It is my kind of homework because it involves colored paper and cutting.  The younger two read tonight.  I can spot their remnants, a Sports Illustrated for Kids and a Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, along with the usual clutter.

This morning I did some reading of my own.  I found myself in a hotel bed with a hot cup of decent coffee and thirty minutes of unexpected, yet coveted free time.  I also found myself in pain because of a back porch work out I spontaneously slid into my Saturday morning.  Something possessed me to do lunges, and walking normal has not happened since.  

Working out can hurt…I mean hurt…but it does make us stronger. My aching muscles made me think of other kinds of pain, like being sad, lost, hurt, or just really confused.  I know from experience that when we hurt in those ways, we can also end up stronger.   Philippians 9:6 says “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in your will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”  That verse came to mind.  The aches, pains, and worries we all face will one day on earth or in heaven be wiped away.  In Christ, we are complete!  He is working and in the good and bad, He is working for our good.  Maybe, just maybe, someone needs to hear that this week and claim the verse as their own.  

I kept on reading in Philippians, like I have before, but it made sense in a whole new way. Light bulbs went off!  This was Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi that he wrote from prison in chains.  (talk about dedication and the ability to praise and trust when you are in pain)  Verse 12 caught my attention.  It says “Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.”  

Paul’s pain and his current situation, being held in prison in chains, served to advance the gospel.  His horrendous conditions made it possible for others to know about the gospel, about the love of Jesus Christ.  

Stay with me here…how could Paul, a follower of Jesus locked up in prison, advance the gospel?  It is because Paul was sharing and preaching about the love of Jesus Christ even when he was in pain and in prison.  I mean for Pete’s sake, how amazing is that? His current loss served as a gain for Christ because Paul was STILL proclaiming how great God was despite his personal predicament.  

This passage of scripture blows me away.  It provides us all with some food for thought.  If you are going through hard times, if  you are in the valley, and wondering how on earth did you end up here, praise the LORD and allow God’s grace to flow freely through you.  When everything is going good and you praise God, it is to be expected.  What about when your life is crumbling and going to shreads and you praise Him?  Then my friends, you are advancing the gospel.