A Beginning of Purpose
Philippians 1:21-24
21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell.
23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.
24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.
Paul’s words in verse 23 stopped me. He’s actually saying that he’d be better off dead?
Well, yeah. It makes sense, when you think about it. After all, what is heaven? It’s a place of perfection, where there’s no pain, no suffering…nothing bad at all. But more importantly than everything being made out of expensive commodities is the fact that God will be there! The light that shines from Him will make the sun obsolete, and we’ll join choirs of angels and all the believers throughout history and we’ll worship Him with joy! There is no drawback to being in heaven! It’s better than anything we can possible imagine!
I recently went to a Pittsburgh Steelers football game. I love to go. There’s something special about 65,000 people coming together in one place to make a lot of noise about a common passion. The Steelers were great (they played the Chargers in a playoff game and won) and the atmosphere was mostly great (aside from a fight or two at the beginning). People are excited and happy there. The Terrible Towels were swinging, our screams were so loud that we probably caused two false starts on the Chargers, and high-fives abounded throughout the game. I mean, people were cheering for the Steelers in the bathrooms, that’s how excited everyone was!
But as great as this experience was, heaven will be way better, right? Even if our minds weren’t elevated beyond being interested in a simple little game such as football, could you imagine the spectacle of a heavenly football game? Maybe the stadium seats over a million people. Maybe ten million people. Tickets would be free. A perfect quarterback would make a perfect pass to a receiver who ran his route perfectly, but is perfectly being covered by a defender. Who gets THAT ball?!? Nobody gets hurt, the refs can see every call…we’re talking a spectacular experience that would dwarf anything we could ever put together on earth!
So why do we get so excited about stuff on earth? Or, perhaps more accurately stated, why do we care so much about pursuing earthly things and experiences?
This passage really made me think. Am I “hard pressed between the two” like Paul is? I don’t think so, at least not all the time. I don’t think it’s wrong to have nice things or like nice things or even desire nice things, but with Paul, his views of nice things were firmly placed in perspective. Even his own life was seen as trivial in comparison with the promises of being with Christ in heaven.
When I read this passage, it made me think about how I’ve prayed sometimes. I’ll say something like, “Thank you, God, for giving me another day of life.” Okay, but why? Why am I happy to be alive for another day?
With Paul, it seems like he already has his answer. For him to live another day means that he now has another day to work to produce fruit. “To live is Christ” - a weird phrase when you think about it. The best way I can understand it is to use the same structure for another subject - “To read Wikipedia is Brendan.” To read Wikipedia is to do something that resembles Brendan. To live is to do something that Christ did. Paul can’t lose! Either he is living his life, emulating the example of His Savior, or he is dying, and he’s even better off for that.
To be alive today means that you and I are alive for a purpose. If we are grateful to be alive instead of swept up into the glory of heaven, then why should be thankful? Paul said that he has another day to produce fruit. We have another day to get to know God better before we go. We have another day to appreciate what He made for us, but with full realization that it will pale in comparison to heaven. We have another day to reach our friends, to build up our brothers and sisters, to shine a light into our families.
And this is a beginning of purpose. There are other beginnings of purpose, but this is just one: To realize that heaven is better than what we’ve got going now, to the extent that we’d actually rather be there than here. If that be the case, then we can figure out how to make the best of our time stuck in this earthly body. If we can realize the necessity of remaining in the flesh, then perhaps we can be more effective as Christians here.
Grace and peace,
Brendan
