I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been feeling so wretched for the past few months or what, but I’ve had a few conversations with people about what sorts of things I run back to Scripturally when I feel poorly. And the number one thing I get excited about lately is the temporary nature of this life. As Paul puts it, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For 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 what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Cor 4:16-18 NIV)
Isn’t it amazing that the amount of glory we get in the end is so incredibly much that it makes all the brokenness and misery of living here look like “light and momentary troubles”? I love that idea! I really don’t know what I would do if I thought I’d spend eternity with a broken body and broken relationships and all the stress of living in a broken world, or if I thought this life is all there is.
While we were on vacation, I had a couple meltdowns because I couldn’t do things I love and miss. Being broken is hard! And sometimes it looms so large that it seems to be the only real thing in my life. But that’s not reality. The reality is that God is working something beautiful in my brokenness, something that is so wonderful that when I see it, I’ll think all this day to day junk was just light and momentary troubles. The reality is that day by day, we’re getting closer to being with Jesus, to having perfect bodies, to living sin-free.
