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I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:11-13)

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Our circumstances vary wildly across life.\xa0 Yesterday we recognized that as we talked about the ever-changing seasons of life.\xa0 Knowing bits of Paul\u2019s story as we do from the book of Acts and some of his writings in letters like these, we know that this was true in his life as well.\xa0 We know some of the situations of \u201cplenty\u201d and \u201cwant\u201d that he faced.\xa0 Lest we forget: Paul sent this letter to Philippians from a place of imprisonment.\xa0

In our own lives: there are times we have things to celebrate: births and baptisms, weddings and graduations, professions of faith, anniversaries, retirements, and any number of other changes and gifts that arrive along our way.\xa0 But there are also things to grieve: deaths, losses, accidents, partings, diseases, and any number of other hardships.\xa0 With those highs and lows of life, come ebbs and flows in resources available to us as well.\xa0 Some seasons are richer, some leaner.\xa0

Amidst these changing circumstances and seasons of life, contentment can seem like a moving target.\xa0 How can I be content when it is painfully obvious that I don\u2019t have what my peers have?\xa0 How can I be content when I (or my loved one/friend) is facing a medical crisis?\xa0 How can I be content when I bear the weight of so much weariness, anxiety, or uncertainty about the future?\xa0 Or my children?\xa0 Or the church?\xa0 Or society?\xa0 Or the world?

Paul offers an answer.\xa0 It is simple, perhaps deceivingly simple.\xa0 How can one be content in all these different circumstances and seasons of life?\xa0 Only through Christ.\xa0 The one who gives us the strength.\xa0

To continue to beat the drum of the refrain we used throughout the series on Galatians in worship: it is Christ alone.\xa0 Christ alone.\xa0 Christ alone.

To hold on to Jesus through all the changes of our lives is a very simple thing\u2026 and yet also a profoundly difficult thing.\xa0 In order to do it, one has to see the world upside-down, I think.\xa0 Because it is actually the other way round: we do not firstly hold on to Jesus\u2014he is actually the one who is holding on to us.\xa0 He is the one who loved us.\xa0 Died for us.\xa0 Called us.\xa0 Chose us.\xa0 Forgave us.\xa0Adopted us.\xa0 Nothing can separate us from his love, because it does not depend on the strength of our grip on Jesus, but his grip on us.\xa0 And he is able to hold on.

Looking at the world upside-down in this way also reveals to us that it\u2019s not about what lies in our hands at any given moment.\xa0 What counts, is what is in Jesus\u2019 hand.\xa0 And as the children\u2019s song reminds us: Jesus has, not just us, but the whole world in his hands.\xa0 Every natural resource belongs to him.\xa0 Every breath we breathe is yet another gift of life he has given\u2014this God who first breathed into us.\xa0 Every skill that can be possessed is part of his creation.\xa0 Jesus has and is enough for all we need.

It is not about seeing what is in our hands, but about seeing that we are held in his.

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