Philippians 1:12-14

Philippians 1:12-14 
English Standard Version (ESV)

  My life, like yours and everyone else's, is not a series of leaps from mountaintop to mountaintop.  There is time in the valleys, where shadows stretch and the light can be harder to see, and there is time on the plain, wondering what the next chapter might be like.  Often, particularly in those valley experiences, it is all I can do to place one foot in front of the other, and it's easy to opt for self-pity.
  What Paul does remarkably is frame everything up through the lens of advancing the Gospel.  When he's in the dark valleys, he sees this as an opportunity to help others see how Christ's light shines in dark places.  He is imprisoned, but his mind is focused on declaring the Gospel, and so rather than fixate on what is wrong with his situation, he wonders instead how this situation might be an opportunity for others to come to know the grace and love of God.
  The glory of the Gospel is that our conditions do not alter God's love for us.  Christ is with us -- though we walk through the valley of death, we do not fear, because God is with us.  In Paul's imprisonment, the Gospel made him free.  May the wonder of Christ grant us that same freedom of spirit.