Secrets always arouse our curiosity. We hate it when a friend has a secret that we are not allowed to know, even when that secret is not worth knowing. When I was a child I would often walk different ways home from school, even if it meant a long detour. On one occasion I went with a school friend to her home. She told me she knew a secret way back to my house and, even though I already knew the way, I couldn't resist asking her – and she carefully told me in great triumph my usual route!
Those who have been reading the Bible in a Year know that we are in Jeremiah, Proverbs and amongst Paul's letters. In those readings [see below] Proverbs speaks of the mysteries of wisdom and Paul writes about the mysteries of God in Christ. Jeremiah warns the Jews time and again of God's judgement on them, but they cannot get their heads around what seemed to them a mystery. How could God be their God but let war come upon them? Despite their appalling behaviour to the poor and towards God, they simply couldn't understand that God might want to punish them to bring them round. How could God love and act justly in such circumstances?
We'll see how Paul wrestles with the mystery of God's love in the readings for this week. Even today, in our passage from Philippians, where we are in among his closing remarks to that church, one particular secret does come through – and that is about what Paul had learned.
Some things we learn when we are taught them, but other things we only learn when we have experienced them for ourselves – so they seem to be secrets. We cannot seem to hack them even when we are told them. In Philippians 4:12 is one such lesson, where Paul writes,
I have learned the secret of being content
Isn't that just obvious, yet not obvious? In our acquisitive and hedonistic society we have to learn that secret by hard experience. So my question for us to ponder today is
Have I learned the secret of being content?
Alan Cartwright
Read the Bible in a year: Proverbs 24:5-14, Jeremiah 6:1-7:29, Philippians 4:2-23
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