Philippians 4:1-7 (NIV) 1 Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!
2 I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord. 3 Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow, help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
My mother has a phrase she likes to say to me when I am frustrated about something. Especially when I am frustrated because of something small (like a bad hand while playing cards) she will say “Mark, In the light of Eternity does it really matter!?!” She is always right (not that I always want to hear it. I mean, come on! Being dealt four 9s in Euchre is pretty bad.) Some times we just need perspective.
The two women in Philippians Chapter 4 are forever immortalized (canonized even) in scripture for fighting. If there were two sentences passed down in history about you would you want verse 2 and 3 to be it? Paul doesn’t wade into the fight and take sides. He asks the community to help them get along. He doesn’t just ask them to agree. He asks them to “agree in the Lord”. When we have a proper perspective on God often our squabbles fade into the background. “In the light of eternity does what we are fighting about really matter?”
The second command is “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all.” A lot of Philippians is about suffering. Sometimes from a worldly perspective we have no reason to rejoice. Once again the perspective is given. “The Lord is near”. My earthly circumstances may not give reason to rejoice but my future hope does. When God is in perspective my troubles fade and I can rejoice. I have heard Jim and Adrienne Reese (The founders of CH) say that when they found out that their son had special needs they were able to handle it in part because they didn’t view God in light of their problems they viewed their problems in light of God. In this they were able to rejoice.
Lastly when we keep God in the proper perspective we can “be anxious about nothing”. We can have the “peace that transcends all understanding”. It is hard but when we see God properly our perspective lets our problems fade.
This reminds me of a scene from the TV show The West Wing. If you are not familiar with the show it is a fictional account of life behind the scenes for the staff at the White House. In the scene, the president’s daughter goes out to a bar/restaurant with some of the president’s aides. At one point she is separated from them and a group of guys starts to hit on her and harass her. They have no idea who her father is. One by one the aids notice this and come to her and things get heated. They all are in that very tense, macho attitude of, “there is going to be trouble”. The last of the aids to notice however, sees the girls keychain that she has left on the table and grabs it. Since she is the president’s daughter she can not go anywhere without the secret service so on her keychain is a panic button that will signal the armed agents that are outside to storm in and take control. When he joins the group he is not tense like the others. They are all in fight or flight mode, displaying a lot of bravado. He walks up with a goofy grin on his face and a simply says “How’s everybody doing?” His grin is priceless. He has a different perspective because he just pushed the button. He knows the cavalry is coming. The secret service storm in and take the guys who were bugging the girl away in cuffs.
Do we have a picture of the power that is around us? If so, why are we anxious? I once heard a speaker talking about meditation and how so many Christians say they have trouble meditating on God. He said “you already know how to meditate because you know how to worry. Worrying is just thinking about some thing over and over again. So is meditating we just have to change what we are thinking about.” It is hard to simply not worry. We need something to replace those thoughts. If instead just trying to think about whatever we are worried about we focused on a promise from God’s word, we can keep him in perspective and the problem will fade.
In the light of eternity, does it really matter?
Mark Wallace
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