You know the acronyms YOLO and FOMO? “You only live once,” and “fear of missing out.” Those phrases describe a passion to have amazing experiences. As we have been studying the Apostle Paul’s perspective on his incarceration in Philippians 1, it almost sounds like he is using a version of YOLO or FOMO. But is he?
In verses 22–23, Paul remarks that in his near future he will learn if he lives or dies. He is on house arrest awaiting a plea hearing before the Roman Caesar who could acquit him or give him the death penalty. No surprise that Paul is wrestling with these options.
I appreciate Paul’s honesty as he debates life and death. He writes that it would be absolutely amazing to actually be with Jesus. To be done with the struggles of this life. To reach the goal. But even still, he says that if he lives, he knows that in this life he will have fruitful labor for the mission of Christ.
Do you see what this mean? It’s not about what’s in it for Paul. Sure, departing and being Christ would be better, for him. But not necessarily for the Philippian church. For Paul, the focus is not on himself and what is best for him. The focus is outward. If he dies, the focus is Christ because he will be with Christ. If he lives, the focus is still on Christ, because he will be able to help more people know Jesus.
Paul’s focus on Jesus, whether he lives or dies, is what got me thinking about YOLO and FOMO. We humans can believe that we will be fulfilled in life when we have lots of amazing experiences or purchases. Some people plan their lives based on YOLO and FOMO. They create a Bucket List, goals they want to accomplish throughout their life. Over the course of the years, they set out to do them. Could be traveling to various parts of the world. Could be to perform some kind of physical feat. Run a marathon, for example. Could be to have a certain experience. Like view the rings of Saturn through a really powerful telescope. Could be to read a classic like Crime & Punishment.
As I compare YOLO/FOMO philosophy with what Paul writes in Philippians 1, they don’t seem to line up. You might say that Paul has one item on bucket list: Christ.
I recently read Charles Marsh’s excellent biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Strange Glory. Bonhoeffer was a German pastor who lived in Nazi Germany. Three weeks after Hitler came to power, Bonhoeffer was on the radio and writing public statements boldly opposing Hitler and Nazi philosophy. Bonhoeffer watched in horror through the ensuing years as the German church caved and sold itself out to the Nazis. Bonhoeffer was part of the confessing church that remained faithful to Jesus. He even started a seminary to train pastors for the confessing church in the midst of Nazi Germany. Eventually, he got thrown in prison, and right near the end of the war he was hanged in a concentration camp.
During Bonhoeffer’s incarceration, in his Letters from Prison he wrote:
“We used to think one of the inalienable rights of man was that he should be able to plan both his professional and his private life. That is a thing of the past. The force of circumstances has brought us into a situation where we have to give up being anxious about tomorrow. But it makes all the difference whether we accept this willingly and in faith or under continual constraint . . .there remains for us only a very narrow way, often extremely difficult to find, of living every day as if it were our last, and yet living in faith as if there will be a great future.”
Bonhoeffer sounds like Paul. It’s clearly not about him. It’s about Christ. As Paul writes in verse 21, “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
Paul is so clear. If he goes on living, his life is all about Christ! If he dies, then fine, it’s gain because he gets to be with Christ! Paul had a singular focus in his life. It was Christ. Paul is saying, “How can I live for Christ? How can I die for Christ? All I want is Christ.”
When Christ is your focus, the chains that bind you just don’t seem so strong.
It was almost as if for Paul, the chains didn’t even matter. He didn’t need to focus on the pain of the chains. He didn’t need to focus on the possible outcome of death when he stood trial before Caesar. His focus was on Christ. Christ was his all in all, and he could rejoice, though he was in chains.
Because his focus was on Christ, if he lived, it meant fruitful labor for him which would lead to the Philippian church grow stronger. That, too, made him rejoice!
Because his focus was on Christ, if he died, he would be with Christ!
Evaluate your focus on Jesus. Are you allowing anything to get in the way? Do you have an unhealthy focus on your chains?
“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Can you hear Paul rejoicing in those words!
Will you say these words throughout the week, as an act of intentional joy?
When you repeatedly direct your focus on Christ like Paul did, no matter what the chains are that you’re struggling with, you’ll notice that because you have Christ, the chains lose their power over you.
In this week three of Advent, we have been focusing on the joy that Jesus brings. As the angels declared at this birth, “Joy to the world, Christ is born!” Jesus the Christ has made it possible for us to have joy no matter our circumstances.
Photo by Emmanuel Hernandez on Unsplash
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