Paul was less worried about the destination and more concerned with the journey . . . he seems to have cared more about the process than the outcome . . . focused more on how he did life than on how life treated him. I’m reading in Philippians this morning and am again impressed and inspired by the apostle’s singular focus applied to what’s going down in his life at the time.

He’s in prison . . . but, he says, “My imprisonment is for Christ” (Php. 1:13). His “field of ministry” has been restricted to just the palace guard but he rejoices that “most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear” (1:14). There are those on the outside who are taking advantage of Paul’s imprisonment to increase their own ministry . . . trying to “out preach” the apostle . . . to build themselves up by putting him down while he’s out of the way . . . and to this Paul’s response is, “What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice” (1:18).

What’s with the guy? Is he just little Mr. Sunshine? Are the only glasses he has rose-colored? Is he just a lemonade maker? Does he just try and escape from reality by continually going to his own little happy place? No, not really. What he is, is focused. What he has is a filter . . . a way of looking at all that happens in his life . . . the good, the bad, and the ugly . . . through a single lens . . . evaluating how it aligns with his overriding life’s “mission statement.”

“. . . it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.” (Philippians 1:20 ESV)

I’m in prison? . . . may Christ be honored in my body. I can only preach to a few Roman soldiers? . . . may Christ be “magnified” (NKJV) in my body. There are doofuses out their preaching the gospel out of rivalry and envy? . . . may Christ be “exalted” (NASB, NIV) in how I respond. I might die in this prison? . . . may it happen in such a way as “to make Christ more accurately known” (MSG). Don’t you get jazzed by Paul’s singular, overriding desire for his life? I do. Bringing honor to Jesus should be life’s great umbrella.

Oh, to be so sold out to Christ that everything . . . absolutely everything . . . is brought under the over-arching desire to honor Him. That all of life’s blessings would be received and then leveraged in such a way as to exalt Him. That life’s trials, persecutions, imprisonments, and even death would all be brought into subjection to the grand purpose of magnifying the Savior. That even the mundane, day-in-day-out stuff, would be influenced with the desire to walk in manner worthy of, and consistent with, the Christ being formed in me by the Spirit’s sanctifying work.

Paul’s greatest fear was that through the trials of his imprisonment he might do something of which he would be ashamed . . . literally, something that would “disfigure.” He dreaded the thought of reacting in some manner, or saying some word, that would bring shame upon him and would distort and dishonor the One he desired to proclaim in his body. And what was true for Paul in the trials and testings of Roman confinement should be true for me in whatever state I find myself in. That I would be guarded and directed by an intense inner dread of doing anything that reflects poorly on the One who died for me . . . the One who is, one day soon, coming again for me.

That Christ would be honored in my body . . . that He would be exalted . . . that He would be magnified . . . in all things . . . through all circumstance . . . so that He might receive all glory. Not a bad umbrella to get under. Amen?