The Discipline of Difficulties
There is a difference between how we respond to an emergency situation and how we respond to living with its long term consequences. Immediate disasters and enduring difficulties both demand discipline.
Today there is a sense of dis-ease surrounding us as we are experiencing physical, emotional and financial tremors that create anxiety. Just as angina is a constriction of blood flow to the heart, so anxiety can cause a constriction of confidence and courage in the soul and spirit.
Our apparent fragility and susceptibility to biological and financial forces reveals a side of reality in which we experience a sense of the melancholy of impermanence.
But that is not the only side of reality; for we who name the name of Christ are waiting for the permanence of our Messiah who shall return to rule and reign.
Until that great and awesome day, we must discipline our minds. We need to know, as Paul reminds Christians of his day and is still true for us today, "this momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison" (2 Cor. 4:17) and again Paul states; "we consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us." (Romans 8:18)
Today is real. There is no escaping that truth. But there is coming a day even more real and true. And as those who are immortal, we should focus on that which is eternal, and that is the Kingdom of God.
Serving Him with you
Until He comes for us,
Fred