Readings for today: 2 Corinthians 1-4
Like many Americans, I will gather with family today and feast and celebrate all everything I am thankful for in my life. My family, particularly my wife and children. The many friends I have around the world. My colleagues in ministry. The incredible people I get to work with on a daily basis. The many godly men and women who call PEPC home. The many ministries and missions we get to be part of both locally and globally. The connections God has allowed me to make over the years. The impact of the Holy Spirit in my life and through my life. My country even with all the challenges we currently face. The men and women who serve our communities as first responders. The men and women who serve in our military forces around the world. Most of all, I thank God for what He did through Jesus Christ. Born into our world. Becoming a human just like us. Suffering and dying for us. Rising again to defeat death and sin and evil once and for all. It’s breathtaking to take it all in.
Perhaps the thing I am most thankful for this year is that God never gives up. Not on me. Not on you. Not on the world. I have watched God pursue those I love with relentless love. I have seen Him turn their hearts away from sin. I have watched Him transform them from one degree of glory to another. It’s amazing. And it’s what I love most about Him. He always sees the best in us. He always sees what He first created in us. He is always seeking to call His will and His glory out of us. The same was true for the Apostle Paul. I think of all that went wrong in Corinth. The Christians there were a divided and fractious bunch. They caused him all kinds of headaches and heartburn. He wrote them at least four letters that we know of though we only have two of them. He thought of them constantly. Prayed for them constantly. Confronted them constantly. They took up a lot of his time and energy. But still Paul saw in them what God saw in them. He could see the Spirit of God working in them. Transforming them. Changing them from the inside out. He could see the treasure God had entrusted to them though he knew they were fragile jars of clay. He could see that God hadn’t given up on them so he couldn’t give up either. Though their outer bodies were wasting away, their inner natures were being renewed day by day. The momentary light afflictions they were causing Paul or perhaps suffering themselves were not worth comparing to the weight of glory God had entrusted to them. How does Paul maintain such hope in the face of all the challenges? He focuses not on what is seen but what is unseen.
What about us? I think about the people I love who I will spend time with this holiday season. Inevitably, we will have our moments. Moments where we irritate or perhaps even offend each other. Moments where we struggle to get along or to say a kind word. Moments where we fight or argue or say things we wish we could take back. What if we entered this season with a commitment to focus not on what is seen but what is unseen? Not on what is on the outside but what God is doing on the inside? What if we asked God to give us the eyes to see the transformation He is working out in the hearts of those we love and live with and among? Would it not lead to thanksgiving?
Readings for tomorrow: 2 Corinthians 5-9