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…
~2 Corinthians 4:16-17
Perhaps it’s the constancy of being called on to pray for brothers and sisters in Christ for a breadth of earthly sufferings: a traumatic injury or illness, a growing cancer, the destruction of homes and lives from storms and fires, the death of a child. Maybe it’s because of the obvious and rapid cultural deterioration all around—mobs advocating for the right to kill babies, the deafening silence on the global slaughter of Christians, the devastating impacts of social media and AI (growing anxiety, the decline of critical thinking, the eradication of true community). Or it could be that I’m getting older and my body is betraying me in new ways each day with more pain and less vitality.
All we have to do is flip open our Bibles to Genesis 3 for that “Oh yeah” moment as to the Big Why of it all. Because of the choice of Adam and Eve in the Garden, humans and all of creation are subject to the curse, the wasting power of sin and death. Our bodies deteriorate over time (despite all those injections). Creation itself kills and dies. Sinful thoughts, words, and actions waste our time, money, energy, emotion—all leading down the path to death (Romans 5:12; Romans 6:23). Even though, in Christ, we are redeemed through the saving grace of Jesus and fully justified through faith, we remain in this fallen world and in a constant battle against our yet-unredeemed flesh (Romans 7:15-20). We await our final redemption when we become fully free from the very presence of sin…and in our glory, we’ll be in a perfected (and very real) body, living in a liberated and glorified Creation.
Sweet friend, please know that our wasting away is never a waste! Suffering, trials, and death will continue until Christ returns. But in it all, we are being made more like Jesus (2 Corinthians 3:18). These sufferings create endurance, character, and hope because of the hope we have in Christ through the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:3-5). We will groan in the fallenness of this world and of our body as we wait for our ultimate redemption—even Creation itself groans to be restored to its intended glory (2 Corinthians 5:1-5; Romans 8:22-23). But we can trust that whatever we face has passed through the hand of our Good and Sovereign God. His will and purpose are perfect, and it’s all for our good and His glory (Romans 8:28). For the time being, every tragedy, trauma, crisis, and death is Providential. All we see today is the sin-made knotted, chaotic mess of the underside of life’s quilt…one day, oh one sweet day, we’ll see it from the perspective of glory, savoring the exquisite beauty in every stitch, knowing full well that not a single thread was wasted.
“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4).
encouraged by grace 