Today, I can do one thing

I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:12-13, NRSV)We’ve all spent a lot of time in our homes recently and if we didn’t know every contour of every room before, we probably do now. It’s made me reflect on the things that are on my walls currently as well as posters/wall-hangings I had growing up. I didn’t have a picture like the one shown above in my room, but it wouldn’t have been out of character for me. The person seems to be ready to climb to the mountaintop and the verse seems to pair well with it. I also had a friend who had a picture of a basketball player with the Philippians 4:13 verse written on it and I remember when I was a youth leader, there was a student who always recited this verse before she swam in a meet. The passage is seemingly tailor-made for people to do something extraordinary. To strive. To excel. To achieve. After all the verse says, “I can do ALL things…”

I’m sure I’ve read the verses around that one verse before, but when I was reading through Philippians a couple weeks ago, I was taken aback by context. The author (Paul) shares an interesting meditation that instead of always coming out on top and winning the gold medal, he shares that he knows what’s it like to have nothing. It seems to be a meditation not necessarily on achievement, but contentment. We will have days of being full. And days of being hungry. And in the midst of it all, we receive Christ’s strength who can help me through either one.

These are certainly days of hunger. Some are feeling the pangs of literal hunger and we must always make sure we are doing whatever we can to make sure those physical needs are met. But many are also feeling other kinds of hunger. Emotional. Spiritual. We may not have the kind of rah-rah attitude these days that we can climb every mountain. We may barely be able to make it up the stairs. Strength is with us in all those moments. That’s what Paul is trying to say here, I think. You may wake up and pray for the strength not to do all things, but simply to do one thing today. And that is enough.