Why Philippians? Why now? What kind of focus?

Why is Philippians one of my favorite epistles?  Don’t know.  It has a lot of good stuff in it.  Verses that speak to me.  Verses worth memorizing.  Verses I have memorized. 

There’s a lot of joy in Philippians – and I sometimes need to be reminded to rejoice.  The “don’t worry” passage in chapter 4 has a box around it, in my Bible, because I’ve memorized it and try to remind myself of it. 

Verse 1:6 is great, too:  during a high school church convention I learned a song based on it, and it’s a message I still need to be reminded of:  “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.”  In other words, God isn’t finished with me – or us – yet.  And that’s OK!

Last April, I led a Bible study about Lydia.  When researching, I discovered that she was a leader of the followers of Jesus who were in Philippi.  That sheds a whole new light on Philippians – or reading the book of Philippians sheds a whole new light on Lydia – and I want to more fully explore that connection.

But what prompted this blog, right now, right here?  I want to attend the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference next July.  The focus of the conference will be the book of Philippians, and our conference moderator is encouraging folks to engage deeply with Philippians between now and then.  Maybe memorize some or all of it.  Maybe simply “marinate” ourselves in this Scripture.  (My term, not hers.)

I am not promising to memorize Paul’s letter to the Philippians within the next nine months.  But I might.  I will at least look at each of the suggested weekly sections – usually only 2-3 verses at a time – with an eye to what I would think about if I were to memorize them.  I want to think about what the verses say…and which passages are especially familiar…which ones I’ve encountered in hymns or praise songs…

Nine months.  That’s the usual interval of time between conception and birth, for humans.  In this case…today is the beginning of something.  A nine-month focus on Philippians.  I wonder what new thing might be birthed between now and the end of July!