Read
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NIV)
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.
Reflect
Can you feel the shift in perspective and purpose captured in these words? Can you sense the change?
For the past several days we have come face-to-face with the reality of a nagging dissatisfaction with the way things are. And we’ve unearthed and named the undercurrent of hunger and thirst for the way they could be. A longing for more. Not more in a consumeristic, generic sense, but more in the most particular and singular way. To know and experience and awaken to the one and only Way—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
And here in these words of Paul, we find vocabulary to articulate the change in our mode of seeing the world.
We take heart as the veil falls from the eyes of our hearts and we begin to glimpse the counter story in which we find ourselves. The discontent was not a barrier to hope, but a guide into it. The cognitive dissonance was a realization of the deeper way. The hunger and thirst were training our affections and appetites and even allegiances around the unseen, eternal, renewing glory so full of weight and authenticity that the very burdens that threatened to crush and destroy now seem light and momentary.
There has been a shift. A move of the soul to embrace dissatisfaction instead of fear it. And somehow it has lost its power to confuse and has begun to clarify. It ceases to distract and now harnesses focus. Even the slow shock of our own outward wasting away is a prophetic declaration of our inward renewal. The wasting will come to a mournful end. But the renewing will go on from glory to glory. And so, friends, we do not lose heart.
Pray
Jesus, continue the shift that you have started in us. Help us to see the unseen work you are cultivating in us. Help us surrender to the inner renewal you have set in motion. Amen.
Conference
Do you resonate with a sense of dissatisfaction with the way things are? Why or why not? What new understanding stood out to you the most over this past week?
For the Awakening,
Matt LeRoy
One Response
Yes, I do resonate with a sense of dissatisfaction with the way things are. I’ve sensed for some time now that there has to be more; more to Christian worship, more to Christian fellowship, more to true discipleship and a deeper experience of “Christ in me”. The posts this week are not a new understanding as much as they are a confirmation that as Jesus told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness “. (2 Corinthians 12:9)