With less than a week to go in this current iteration of military training with my unit in Pennsylvania, soldiers’ spirits are beginning to rise. They can see the end. They are envisioning getting on the buses for the all-night drive back to Macon. They are envisioning hugging their wives and holding their children. They are longing to lie down in their own beds, in their own homes, and shower in their own environs. It’s amazing how the quotidian pleasures of life grow precious when you’re deprived of them–the voice of a loved one, a hot shower, a meal that doesn’t come out of a plastic MRE bag. 

When the apostle Paul was imprisoned, he penned several epistles known appropriately in history as “the prison epistles.” One such letter was Philippians wherein he addressed keeping the long-term goal in mind: “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:13-14). 

Paul had learned what it means to “press on.” I love that phrase. He didn’t just use it cavalierly; he made it his character, his pattern, his way of living the Christian life. He kept the main thing the main thing. If you are tempted to capitulate to self-pity, despair over the day’s headlines, or doubt your efficacy, remember what God has said to you in his Word: press on, pilgrim. God is always and forever good and wholly trustworthy. Lead into the truth; trust the Lord with the results; and press on.