In Greek class today, we'll be looking at one of the most challenging commands Paul ever gave to one of his congregations. It's Phil. 2:14. I've translated it as follows:
Make it your constant practice to do all things -- no exceptions! -- without grumbling or arguing.
If that doesn't get your attention!
Charles Krauthammer, that famous journalist, was also an author. The last book he wrote is called The Point of It All. It was his final work before his death at the age of 68. Much like Joni Eareckson-Tada, Krauthammer had suffered a paralysis from an accident in his youth. But he was determined, though he was a young man at the time, that the experience would not stop him in his tracks and turn him into a pitiful piece of humanity. On the contrary, he would take life by the horns, and indeed he did.
His son, Daniel Krauthammer, wrote his father's eulogy at the end of the book.
It's a beautiful piece. Here are his words as he remembered the life of his father:
Don't be defined by what life throws at you and you cannot control. Accept the hand you are dealt, with grace. And then go on to play that hand as joyously and industriously and vigorously as you can.
What magnificent words.
There's no reason a trial in our lives should ever go to waste. The Philippians, beset by persecution without and quarrelling within, needed to learn that lesson.
When you and I face the trials of life, rather than grousing about them and complaining about them and thereby making other people miserable because of our trial, we can learn to endure it and go through it with a sense of satisfaction and peace that God is at work. When we handle trials God's way rather in the flesh, we realize that our character is being cultivated.
One day, long after I'm gone, how will my children and grandchildren remember me? Will they think of me as a bitter old man who grumbled and complained about what he was called upon to endure in life? Or will they remember me as someone who gladly accepted the hand he was dealt and who played that hand with all the passion and enthusiasm he could muster?
Father, may it be the latter, I pray.