Up or Down?

Is your life going up or down?

At St. Andrew's Church, our lift only goes up from downstairs, and down from upstairs! So the choice is simple to any who wish to use the lift. Not so, if we were on one of the many intermediate floors in London's Shard building, where you could choose either up or down.  

Our lives are similarly complex. When we look at the details, we seem to have an bewildering array of options. But behind each one is a basic choice - Up or Down?

What do I mean?

St. Paul, while in prison in Rome, with the prospect of execution by the Roman authorities, faces his own choice - which he describes as forward or back. When we look closely, it turns out to be a choice about up or down. We can learn from Paul's approach.

'Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.' (Philippians 3.13b-14)

Instead of worrying about what might happen to him, or complaining about how badly he was being treated, Paul refuses to drift into obsessing about the past - failures and successes. His focus in what the future holds, and I am challenged by the way he strains forward, like Mo Farah, in winning the 5000 metres gold medal. For Mo (and the others), finishing well was important. 

For Paul, and followers of Jesus, we know the call of God has a wonderful conclusion, as we share eternity, in the new heaven and new earth, with new resurrection bodies, with our beloved Lord Jesus. Paul chooses to press forward, looking upwards, to what God has promised him. That shapes the small choices which he makes each day. He chooses up and not down.

With that call ringing in our ears today, let us all choose to press onward and upward, rather than drift backwards and downwards.

Best wishes,

Richard