Enduring the Troubles of Life

“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.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”     

~2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NIV).     

We’re intermittently bombarded by incompatible goals, and constantly we deal with fears that never seem to completely or sustainably reconcile themselves.  

What we have here is life as it’s been given on earth, and we’re away from the Father.

The Father has given us Jesus first, then the Holy Spirit as a holy Companion and Guide at Jesus’ ascension—God-in-three, but also God-of-one.  But us, in this realm, is just a fragment of what we are.  We are not at home.

Are You Lonely, Exhausted, Empty, Tired, Angry or Confused?

Times come when we approach a typically inexplicable mood, and though we feel anything but ourselves, we cannot explain why, despite how bad we’re feeling or how troubling our circumstances are.

This is normal, and it’s especially normal for ‘feeling’ types.  ‘Thinking’ types may analyse their issues and generally find some attribution or they think their way out of their trials.  Feelers, also, may think a lot.  But the feeling of being ‘away from home’ finds all believers in these circumstances.

There are some troubles we have that’ll simply be beyond explanation or even description.  Perhaps because of this inexplicability, at source, we’re most troubled, but in the context of eternity we have an explanation, though it doesn’t seem to help much, in tangible terms, at times.

Heaven – Just ‘Over There’

The realism of this sub-heading cannot be truly comprehended, for none of us knows when the world will crumble or we’ll breathe our last; God’s grace interceding to take us home.

Yet, we’re so apt to find a home here.  Family for one and our passions or work for another; these are just two things that keep us pressing in and wishing for one more day, month, year and so on.

We don’t really view our troubles and struggles as ‘light’ or ‘momentary’.

They’re more heavy and lasting than we readily want them to be.  Still, the weight of the present struggles is a blip on the radar of eternity.  But, we’re destined never to feel that reality of eternity until we’re well on our way there i.e. post death, rapture, or the like. 

Eternity claims this truth, to us, as a cliché.  It doesn’t do us any good by fact, only by faith.

Holding On When Things Are Really Tough

Frequently we feel the tightness of our moments, the darkening peeling over us, and despairing is ours for some unlikely reason—even for a minute, an hour or a day; at times longer, much longer.

We’re reminded of these passages in the Bible that reinforce or explain our loneliness of present condition—away from the Father, yet home in the Presence of God via the indwelling Holy Spirit.

We’re honest when we feel like we do, not covering for this destiny-gap.  Of all truths God’s calling us to own, this one’s the one that’s most basic for us to grasp and hold tightly.

God is with us even if we can’t see or feel the Almighty’s Presence.  And still God respects us most assuredly in the sincerity of our prayers founded in the utmost spiritual dissonance.

© 2012 S. J. Wickham.