impact

Philippians 1

12 And I want you to know, my dear brothers and sisters, that everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the Good News.

13 For everyone here, including the whole palace guard, knows that I am in chains because of Christ.

14 And because of my imprisonment, most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God's message without fear.

Paul was in prison when he wrote Philippians. As a matter of fact, he wrote Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, & Philemon while in prison.

Remember that imprisonment back then was not a Club Med experience. But you don't hear Paul whining & complaining about his being in prison, even though he certainly had every right to.

I just find these 3 verses to be an insight into Paul's attitude.

He recognized that even though he was in prison, he was having impact & influence on the people around him, most notably, the palace guard.

The people he was able to impact in telling them about Jesus were people he probably wouldn't have been exposed to, nor had a hearing with, unless he was in prison.

iow, Paul recognized that no matter where he was or what kind of circumstances he was in, God used those circumstances to have Paul introduce people to Jesus.

The same is true of us.

But we don't see it that way.

Whenever we are placed in some troublesome situation, or find ourselves in circumstances we don't think we should be in, what do we do?

We whine & complain.

Why can't we see things like Paul did – that no matter what our present state of affairs may be, we are surrounded by people who need to hear about Jesus, & we can share Him with those people.

We have such a preconceived idea as to how, where, with whom, & what format we must be in to reach people for Jesus.

But if I have learned anything in the last 5 ½ years, we need to throw away our preconceived ideas about what life needs to look like for us to reach out to people for Jesus.

Here's a good example:

One of my sons, Kevin, is a minister – it's not something he DOES – it's something he IS.

Presently, he works at place where they do minor maintenance jobs on cars – kind of like a Jiffy Lube or an Express Lube, although I don't believe that's the name of the place.

Kevin, being who he is, talks to the guys he works with about God & stuff in the Bible.

Now, don't get me wrong – he's not walking around banging people over the head with a Bible.

It's just that being a follower of Jesus as well as someone who reads the Bible every day, & actually prays/talks to God a lot, it's just natural that some of that would come out of him as a result.

It's just who he is.

As a result, it seems that the guys who work there have a daily ongoing discussion about the Bible.

This isn't something they plan out – it just comes out in their day to day working together.

Sometimes they'll be standing in the “pit” under a car, changing the oil & lubricating it, but will be talking about God, what the Bible has to say about things, & how that should all play out in their lives.

As a result, the way the guys treat the customers is better - & the customers are noticing.

Now, I doubt if any of us would think that a Jiffy Lube could be a place where guys working there would be having ongoing God talk which would spill over into the way they treat their customers.

But Kevin simply is who he is, talks about the essence of his life with Jesus, & God is doing something with it.

Ever one of us is in a similar situation in our lives.

We don't like to think about it, but we are.

All we have to do is be who we are...

...followers of Jesus...

...and let that relationship with Him just naturally come out...

...not contrived...

...just shared harmlessly,

like we'd share a good restaurant we went to,

a good movie we saw,

or a great product we're using.

Who knows what might happen if we did such a thing?