Thursday, July 23, 2009

Life Above the Sun: Seeing Majesty in the Mundane

Most of life feels mundane. The housewife has the same routine. The job has the same people dealing with the same problems. Sometimes I feel like I am living in the book of Ecclesiastes--vanity of vanities, nothing is new under the sun, all are striving after the wind.

In those moments, I find that my perspective is decidedly earth bound. Then God in his great mercy transforms my perspective through his word. He jolts me awake with passages like 2 Corinthians 4:17-18. "For this slight 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."

Notice how a gospel perspective changes everything. It changes how we understand affliction. For the most part, afflictions oppresses us. We feel as if we will never get out from under. But this passage reminds us that God is at work even in our afflictions. Feel his goodness as He takes afflictions that happen to us and puts the to work for us. When we see that God takes our pain and turns them into stepping-stones to joy, our pain seems light and short. Our afflictions are preparing something for us, and the result is "glory beyond all comparison."

This centers us on what is truly important, and we look beyond--beyond the mundane of our day, beyond perceived meaninglessness. We look toward eternity and understand that our time is fleeting, a mere shadow of our real existence. The things that seem so important now will seem so small then. We are made for eternity. Thus, I pray that God will fortify us with this thought that we may see the majesty behind the mundane.

1 comment:

  1. I needed this today I need to concentrate on the important things and not worry about the small things. Thanks for the verse in 2 Cor. We are lucky to have you, Kim and your family

    ReplyDelete