2Corinthians 4:16-18 NASB - "16 Therefore we do not
lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being
renewed day by day. 17 For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an
eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, 18 while we look not at the
things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are
eternal."
The dynamics here are difficult. The outer humanity connected to this time and
life “East of Eden” is decaying while the new humanity of our new birth is
given new life day by day, awaiting its full birth at the final death of our
“East of Eden” self at death or the second coming. The tension here is real and is at the heart
of our grief. For there are some unique
realities of this “East of Eden” life that have been part of our relationship
with our loved one. These can never be
restored. They are really past.
C.S. Lewis struggles with this in his “Grief Observed”
“Kind people have
said to me, 'She is with God.' In one sense that is most certain. She is, like
God, incomprehensible and unimaginable.
But I find that this question, however important it may be
in itself, is not after all very important in relation to grief. Suppose that
the earthly lives she and I shared for a few years are in reality only the
basis for, or prelude to, or earthly appearance of, two unimaginable,
supercosmic, eternal somethings. Those somethings could be pictures as spheres
or globes. Where the plane of Nature cuts through them — that is, in earthly
life — they appear as two circles (circles are slices of spheres). Two circles
that touched. But those two circles, above all the point at which they touched,
are the very thing I am mourning for, homesick for, famished for.
You tell me, 'she goes on.' But my heart and body are crying
out, come back, come back. Be a circle, touching my circle on the plane of
Nature.
But I know this is impossible. I know that the thing I want
is exactly the thing I can never get. The old life, the jokes, the drinks, the
arguments, the lovemaking, the tiny, heartbreaking commonplace. On any view
whatever, to say, 'H. is dead,' is to say, 'All that is gone.' It is a part of
the past. And the past is the past and that is what time means, and time itself
is one more name for death, and Heaven itself is a state where 'the former
things have passed away.’”
Now, this loss is what Paul calls a “temporary light
affliction” that prepares us in some way for an unimaginable great eternal
“weight of glory”. Glory is to be in the
presence of the awesome reality of God and reflect the character and competence
of God in such a way that the deepest potential and joy possible is felt by
humanity when it is so filled with God. The word enthusiasm comes from the ancient
Greek word eufousiasmz EN +THEOS meaning "inspired by or possessed by
God". Such possession was to reach
the fullest happiness, holiness, and wholeness possible for a human being. It transforms us into the likeness of Christ
Jesus. This is what the “weight of glory”
really is and so will satisfy us at every level. Nothing experienced in this life can be
compared to this encounter with the very presence of God in Christ.
Our vision must be to see the things that cannot be
seen. To live connected to eternity and
God instead of living in this time “East of Eden” as if this was the final and
total reality of our existence and life.
Only the heavenly minded are any earthly good and are equipped
to strive in faith during times of deep and painful mourning.
Prayer: Lord, help me
to see what cannot be seen now. Allow me
spiritual eyes that will find renewal day by day inwardly even as outwardly
this temporal life “East of Eden” is growing weaker day by day. Help me seek to see the wonder of reflecting
you before a watching society as you truly exist in reality. Help me now to handle my “light affliction”. Lord have mercy on me. Amen
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