In Palaces and Prisons

It stands to reason that someone living in a palace would be satisified, having everything the world has to offer, while someone in prison would be miserable, having everything the world has to offer taken away from them.  And yet, it ain't necessarily so.

King Solomon lived in a palace and had everything that could have been imagined in the way of wealth, power, fame, etc.  At the same time, he was the one who pinned the book of Ecclesiastes,which says in part, "I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure...Yet when I surveyed all haty my hads had done...everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun" (Eccl 2:10-11).

The apostle Paul, on the other hand, while sitting in a prison, shackled and awaiting a very uncertain future - everything taken from him and the very real possibility that even his life was about to be taken as well, was "praying and singing hymns to God" (Acts 16:25).  He was in a prison when he pinned the letter of Phillipians, which tells us to "rejoice always" (Phil 4:4).

How is it possible?  How can one be depressed in a palace while another is rejoicing in a prison?  Solomon and Paul give us the answer using both sides of the coin, negative and positive:

Solomon's negative spirit is found in the words "nothing was gained under the sun" (Eccl 2:11) or from a purely worldly vantage point.  If our hope and our happiness is attached only to what the world can give us, we will not be ultimately happy because the world takes away everything it gives. You can gain nothing that you won't lose; not health, not wealth, not power - nothing.  As you look down the road, everything spirals downhill.

Paul's positive spirit is given foundation later in Philippians chapter 4 when he says, "I have found the secret of being content in any circumstance...I can do [deal with or endure] all things through Christ who gives me strength" (vv. 11-13).   Paul knew that our "light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since we know that what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (2 Cor 4:17-18).  The glory we gain in Christ will never be taken away.  It is truly gain.  Jus' Sayn.