[1] Today was my birthday! Today was also the day Tyler started cutting some new teeth so it was difficult and celebratory at the same time. Difficult because Tyler was so miserable and even when I gave him some infant Tylenol he was still fussier and grumpier than we’ve ever seen him. But amidst all that, today was celebratory because I have so much to be grateful for in this life. We had a nice dinner tonight with some friends and family over and my sister Alicia made me an amazing cake and we had a rousing few rounds of Catch Phrase. It’s been a great day! Click [2] here for small album of pictures from tonight.

Last week I started reading Philippians. I’m going slow, taking only a few verses a day and really trying to get deep into them. I write them out in my notebook and look up words and a commentary or two about that days verses. This morning I was on chapter 1 verses 19-21. Paul is writing this letter in prison and he is explaining to them that no matter what happens it will work out for his deliverance because Christ will be exalted in his body whether it is living or dead. Then I reached the very familiar verse, 21, and stopped.

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

I read it five or six times. What in the world does that mean?! Reading it so many times made it sound not even grammatically correct because how could life be a person–? I thought it might make more sense with more words like “For me to live is to glorify Christ.” Or “For me to live is to proclaim Christ.”

But after studying it for some time I started to get it. Today we try to act like we have this busy life and Christ is an added bonus, or one of our many priorities. We try to act like being a Christian is about a religion not a relationship of following a Person. But for Paul, life was summed up in the person of Christ. The person of Christ had so changed Paul that He was his reason to live or die.

I like how Bobby always calls me out as thinking of Paul as the “Super Apostle.” He was just a man that God used and I need to be obedient in the same ways that Paul was. Is Christ why I do what I do? Is He my thoughts and my desire? So often I am working on spiritual characteristics, studying my Bible or listening to sermons, I don’t want to miss the point that this is all about Him. I definitely need to remember daily that my life needs to be all about Christ because He is my Redeemer and my Lord. He made me alive, not so I could live for myself or this world, but to know Him, to live like He did and be transformed into His image.