So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. — 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (ESV)
I never served in the military and I’ve never been to war. I’ve watch the movies, I’ve read books, I’ve listened to the testimony of soldiers and sailors and airmen, but let’s be real: I don’t have a clue about what it’s like to be part of that life, that calling.
So while I know nothing of what it’s like to live through boot camp, I know that its purpose is to prepare soldiers physically and mentally for what comes next. It’s hard, it’s exhausting, it breaks men and women down and rebuilds them in ways that will equip them to endure the hardships of military life that await them, especially if they are called to fight, and maybe bleed.
Boot camp came to mind while I was reading the passage above. He says, “This life is hard. It will wear you down. It will weigh you down and afflict you with hardships that you will struggle to endure.”
But don’t give up, he says. Don’t lose heart. “Illegitimi non carborundum,” to quote the popular motto from World War II (“don’t let the bastards get you down”). Despite these hard circumstances, Paul says we are being built up through them in our innermost selves by God’s life-giving Holy Spirit.
Then, he gets playful with words, as Paul likes to do.
Sure, right now you’re carrying a feather-weight burden of affliction. But it’s getting you ready for the crushing load of glory God has prepared for you in Heaven. More glory than you can imagine, more than you could lift if you were Samson, glory that will weigh you down with love and joy and gratitude, not hardship.
So in the midst of our afflictions, our sorrows, our disappointments, when we’re wounded and bleeding, Paul says to fix our eyes and our hopes on that eternal glory waiting for us. Don’t lose heart.
Photo credit: Military One Source
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