Do you tend to see the glass as half empty or half full? Are your reflexes hopeful or inclined to be pessimistic? I don’t know whether this is something rooted in our genes or an outlook that we acquire somewhere along the way, but I think we can decide to adopt a more optimistic approach at least to some extent. Can we choose to be less like Winnie the Pooh’s friend Eeyore and decide to reframe things more positively?
In the passage from Philippians that we will be thinking about at St Mary’s on Sunday we find the Apostle Paul adopting a strongly half full approach. He had plenty to be pessimistic about, after all he was writing from prison, and the death penalty seemed to be a very real possibility.
However, instead of seeing his imprisonment as a problem he reframed it as an opportunity. He says that what has happened to him has positively helped to spread the gospel and has emboldened other believers to speak about their faith more courageously.
He was also conscious that while he was in prison, different people were preaching about Jesus and not all of them had good motives. Again, rather than dwelling on this as a problem he saw the glass half full and rejoiced that whether out of false motives or true, Christ was being proclaimed.
Paul refers to Christ ten times in this short passage. He saw everything in relation to Christ rather than in terms of his own circumstances. He is imprisoned for Christ. What matters is that Christ is proclaimed and exalted. For him living is Christ and dying is to be with Christ.
Christ has become the central concern of his life and so his own freedom and comfort, even his own survival, have become secondary. He has discovered something, or rather someone, so worth following, living for, and loving, that everything else has taken on a different significance and proportion.
Paul saw life through this Christ centred lens and seeing things this way changed everything.
As we reflect on Paul’s approach, we are challenged to ask ourselves how we see things. Through what lens do we view life? Do we see life through a Christ centred lens and how does this change our perspective on everything else?
With best wishes,
Stephen