Philippians 4:4-7

Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon.

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

It’s very easy for me to mope around, be serious, worry about the “important” stuff going on. Part of that in my is being in engineering, I have always been charged with figuring out what could possibly go wrong, and then putting safeguards in place. I have been tasked with coming up with the complete set of things that can fail, and then figure which of these potential failures are fixable, and which ones we have to live with.

Dealing with everything and anything that could possibly go wrong in my daily work life has definitely left its imprint on my personality. I am routinely called “pessimistic” and I always snap back and say I am “realistic.” Whatever you call it, many times, if people were to examine my demeanor, my countenance, and then find out that I desire to be committed follower of Jesus, they might think twice about becoming a follower of Jesus themselves. He might say to himself, “If following Jesus has that kind of effect on Bob, I don’t know if I want any part of it.”

It’s pretty scary to think that how much I smile, how much I openly complain and how much I laugh might be effecting someone’s eternity without me even knowing it. As I started to realize this over the years, I began making a few changes. When someone asks me, “How are you?” I try to reply, “Today is the best day of my life!” And it should be. Today should be the best day of my life. It might be the only day of my life left.

The “joy” of following Jesus should be visible on my person most if not all of the time. Later on in this chapter of Philippians, Paul remarks how he has learned to be content in all situations, good and bad. When Paul was falsely imprisoned, his joyful demeanor was responsible for changing the lives of the prisoner and prison guards around him. If Paul can be joyful in prison, I should be able to be joyful running around one of the riches suburbs in the world, with absolutely no physical needs whatsoever.

Being a “beacon of joy” is an aspiration of mine, and something I have been praying for lately in earnest. Until I get there, my philosophy is to fake it until I make it. I’m not sure that is the best angle, but it’s all I got right now.

Philippians 3:13-14

but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on…

Why would Paul want to forget the past?

One of the great things about Paul is that he is real. He is transparent. He speaks the truth about his life, his actions, his sin. In Romans 7:24 Paul remarks what a wretched, miserable man he is, because he continues to take the wrong path, and do the wrong things, even when he knows better, and desires to do the right thing.

That sounds a lot like me. From that angle, I can understand why he would want to forget the past. But he must have done some good things also? Paul had many successes in his past up to this point. He had influenced thousands of people for good, and had mentored and trained up several of his closest friends. Why would he want to forget that?

C.S. Lewis  wrote a very insightful book titled “Th Screwtape Letters.” This book addresses the world of demons, and there is an older demon, named Wormword, in a leadership position on Satan’s team, that is counseling his younger nephew demon in the ways of evil. One of the things Wormwood says to his nephew is that he should strive to make human beings focus on the past, or the future, never the present. If they focus on the present, he lamented, they could possibly serve God and accomplish his purposes.

It is so easy to focus on the past, either your mistakes, or, even the “glory days” as Bruce Springsteen put it to song. Either way, focus on the past is really not productive and can rob you of the present. Worry about the future, or striving for some future success, power, position or money can also rob you of the present. I really only have today, right now, to love and influence those around me. Like the sign pained on Joe’s Crab Shack says, “Free crab tomorrow.” The joke is, tomorrow never comes. It is always today.

That is not to say I shouldn’t plan for the future, but I should focus a great deal of my attention on the present. I should seek and take advantage of all the present opportunities I have to love and influence those around me.

Philppians 2:3-4

Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.

This is really Christianity 101, and at the heart of what I think it means to be a Christ-follower. At the end of each day, when I look back on my day, most of my regrets fall into the category of being selfish, and most of the things that gave me joy during the day were opportunities I had to lift others up. It is so easy for me to be prideful and selfish. I wish I could tattoo these verses to the inside of my eyelids so I could read them every time I blinked.

I have so many opportunities, every hour of every day, to put others interests before my own, and to think of others as better than myself. Unfortunately, I miss many more of these opportunities that I take advantage of. Sometimes I miss them because I am too focused on other things to see them, and sometimes it is because I am too focused on myself to see them. In either case, I really need to pray that I may be sensitive to all the small opportunities to put others first, in my ordinary days.

It is easy for me to fall into the trap of thinking that putting others first has to be a big, monumentous occasion. Some huge act of generosity, rescuing someone from a burning building, etc. The reality is, the most important opportunities are every day, “small” things that would be easy to miss if I wasn’t paying attention, but very impactful if acted upon. Sometimes it is the small things in life that really matter, and really add up over time, positive or negative.

Philippians 1:9-11

So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover’s life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God.

I really like this version from The Message translation. The word Love is heard in many different contexts and has many different meanings. When my 16 year old daughter’s friend says she loves Justin Timberlake, I can be certain that she is speaking of a different kind of love than I share between me and my wife, or the love I have for my children, or the love I feel for the children and people I have gotten to know in under-resourced areas of the Philippines.

Paul is very specific. He wants my love to flourish, which means to prosper, or to thrive. Paul speaks of love that is sincere and intelligent. Only a guy could combine the words intelligent and love into the same phrase. If love puts the needs of others ahead of the needs of myself, intelligent becomes a pretty cool description. I am to think hard about how I can meet the needs of others. I need to be smart about it. I can’t give up at the first sign of trouble.

Living a circumspect and exemplary life. From dictionary.com: circumspect -> watchful, cautious, prudent; and exemplary -> worthy of imitation; commendable; serving as an illustration. Watchful means I should be diligent in anticipating and discovering the needs of others. Worthy of imitation. When people think of loving others, and loving unconditionally, would they really say, or think that Bob Clinkert is a great example of someone who lives a life of consistent loving? I don’t think so; but what an admirable goal to have that said about your life.

A life Jesus would be proud of, bountiful in fruit, making Jesus attractive to all. Am I living an hour to hour, minute to minute life that Jesus can be proud of? Maybe I have some moments, but they are too few, and too far between. Is the fruit, or output of my life so full of grace and love, and so obviously coming from a life of folowing Jesus, that my life is making Jesus attractive to other people? 

When the world rejects Jesus, when the world rejects God’s way of doing things, I have to take responsibility for my share of the problem. If the people around me are not attracted to the life and person of Jesus, then it is partially my fault, and it is my responsibility to do something about it. I am responsible to change the way I live my life so that it is an example to others, and it does make Jesus attractive, and proud.