Have you ever had your world suddenly become very small and your life slow nearly to a grinding halt?
Some folks in our church were driving away from a restaurant while on vacation a few months ago when they were broadsided by a car that blew right through a red light. After spending weeks in faraway hospitals, they are finally back home now, but their days are so different than before the accident as they work to regain what they lost in a single, awful moment.
Another friend abused pain medication after a surgery and began a downward spiral that ended up costing him thousands of dollars, his job, and precious time with his wife and children. He’s currently living in a drug rehab facility, having traded his freedom first for the nightmarish prison of addiction, and now for the necessary prison of recovery.
I’ve watched many older folks come to grips with the hard truth that going places and doing things they used to do takes more energy, agility and strength than they can muster. Most say they feel like young souls imprisoned in old bodies.
I understand the frustration of suddenly feeling trapped in a small world and slow life as I’ve spent the past five weeks at home recuperating from knee surgery. It’s a temporary sentence in a pretty pleasant prison, but it’s still driving me a bit nuts.
In my less stellar moments, I whine and wonder how THIS could be God’s best plan for my life right now. In my better moments, I remember all I have to be thankful for and look to God’s Word for encouragement. I especially appreciate the writings of the Apostle Paul, a guy who knew a thing or two about forced confinement and suffering.
Paul’s letter to the Philippians, tagged “the joy letter of the New Testament,” was written during one of his many stints in prison. Some Bible scholars believe Paul was simply under house arrest when he wrote this epistle, while others think the apostle may have been imprisoned in a cold dungeon with raw sewage running through trenches around him.
Regardless, Paul had lost his freedom and couldn’t go where he wanted to go. The world of this traveling evangelist and church planter had become tiny and yet he was able to write a letter packed with encouragement, inspiration, thankfulness and joy. How did he do it?
Right there in Philippians 4:12b-13, he tells us: “I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”
What was the “secret” that enabled Paul to be content, no matter what his circumstances were like? He looked to, asked for, and depended upon strength from God. And we’re given additional insight to Paul’s “illogical” contentment in some other letters he wrote:
- Colossians 3:2: “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.”
Paul had learned that things of this world can’t provide long-term satisfaction and fulfillment. Only living with and for God offers that, and no earthly prison could prevent him from doing that. - 2 Corinthians 4:17: “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”
Nothing could steal Paul’s sure hope that he would spend eternity with His Savior in a gloriously perfect, joyful place.
Circumstances inevitably conspire at times to painfully shrink the boundaries of our lives, but we don’t have to let that steal our joy or hope. In truth, our worlds are as big as the gods … or God … we know and trust. If that God is Jesus Christ, then like Paul, there is truly no prison that can hold us.