This Too Shall Pass

“For our light and momentary trouble 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 4:17-18

            What do you see when you look at the world around us? When you turn on the news or open a newspaper? What about as you scroll through your Facebook feed or look at Instagram posts? Do you see joy? Or happiness? Or excitement and anticipation? I sure don’t. What I mainly see right now is panic and fear. A month ago, we couldn’t have predicted what our world is like today. So much has changed in such a short amount of time! We now live in a world dominated by fear. People are afraid of getting sick, or of running out of essential items. All of this has made us afraid of each other. We feel like we’re caught in a situation where we have little or no control. I think that’s what creates the hoarding. It’s an attempt to have a little bit of control in the midst of an uncontrollable situation. We may not be able to control the spread of this awful virus, but at least we have toilet paper!

            The truth is that we’re never in control. We never know what the future is going to hold. It’s just much more obvious right now than it usually is. That can be a good thing if it causes us to lean more heavily on God. So in that light, let’s take a look at this verse. First, what we’re experiencing are “light and momentary troubles.” It doesn’t matter what we’re experiencing. Of course, there’s the pandemic but we all have other struggles as well. But whatever they are, we can be confident of two things. In the light of eternity, our struggles are light and they’re momentary. They won’t last forever. The saying “this too shall pass” applies to every one of the troubles we face on this earth. It certainly doesn’t feel like that as we’re going through them. But that’s because we see them through the lens of this world, not the lens of eternity.

            Not only are our troubles light and momentary, but they always achieve eternal glory for us. And that glory outweighs every single problem we could ever experience on this earth! That’s a reason for praise! The harder our struggles, the greater the glory will be! And that’s not a momentary glory. That’s for eternity! No wonder Paul then encourages us to fix our eyes on that. Even though we can’t see into heaven, that’s what we should focus on. How can we focus on something we can’t even see? By focusing on God. Of course, we can’t see Him with our earthly eyes, either. But if the eyes of our hearts are fixed on Him, everything we see and experience on this earth will be different. Better. Easier. More hopeful. When we look at this world through the eyes of our Heavenly Father, we won’t be filled with fear or panic or questioning or wondering. We’ll be filled instead with awe and the hope and joy that comes only from Him Who is eternal.