Running Out of
Things to Resent

Read it again and notice how many things Paul refuses to be upset about.

He isn’t upset about his imprisonment, because it advanced the gospel. He isn’t upset about rival preachers with ugly motives, because Christ got preached anyway. He isn’t upset about the uncertainty of his trial, because either verdict ends with Christ exalted. He isn’t even upset about the possibility of dying, because that outcome is better by far. A man with every reason on earth to be bitter has systematically run out of things to be bitter about.

That isn’t personality and it isn’t denial. It’s the result of a specific way of seeing.

Paul has one question running underneath everything, and the question isn’t what does this cost me but what does this accomplish for Christ. Once that question is really the primary one, a ton of things that used to have power over you simply stop having it. The setback becomes a platform. The rival becomes a coworker with a flawed heart who’s still saying the right name. The uncertain future becomes a choice between two good outcomes.

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What might this accomplish for Christ?

We tend to want the joy without the reordering, and it doesn’t come that way. Paul isn’t happy because his circumstances improved. They plainly didn’t. And he isn’t happy because he lowered his expectations, because he clearly didn’t do that either. He’s joyful because the thing he wants most is a thing his circumstances can’t touch.

So here’s the whole week in a sentence. Nothing in Paul’s life was wasted, because everything in his life was aimed at something bigger than his life.

Look at your own week honestly and ask which parts of it feel wasted right now, whether that’s the job going nowhere, the season that won’t end, or the relationship you’re carrying that doesn’t carry you back. Then ask Paul’s question over each one. What might this accomplish for Christ?

You won’t always get an answer, and Paul didn’t always get one either. But the question itself changes what the waiting feels like, and it turns out that’s most of the battle.