There are definitely moments in life that weigh heavier than others. When my dad died, there was a waiting period of 10 days before we were able to have the funeral. During that time his body lay in a small room at the funeral directors and only close family were permitted to visit him.
On the last occasion that my mum, sister and I visited that room, my mum remarked that this visit was the last time that we would all be physically together on this earth. Her words hung heavy in the air as that realization sunk in... Air that was already thick with grief grew heavy with the weight of the moment we were in. It was a moment that we would never be able to return to. Once gone it would be gone forever…
There are moments in our lives that carry a weight with them – even while we’re still living them. Our minds are not only called to experience them in the present, but somehow we catch a glimpse of their significance from the perspective of a future self. Our minds are burdened with how we might recall them, how we might judge ourselves looking back, with the full knowledge that once gone, they can never be revisited.
Arguably, the time we’re living in now is such a time as this. The news is full of weighty statements that tell us that not since World War II has the nation seen such restrictive social measures put into place. Never in peacetime has the nation faced such strict instructions to stay inside to protect the most vulnerable: Schools are closed, millions of people are working from home, our key workers have become heroes, and our Queen has made a crisis-driven public address for only the fourth time in her 68-year reign.
Our school children are being encouraged to keep a diary of events – in the sure and certain knowledge that one day they will look back on this time as a defining period of their childhoods. On Facebook, a status update has gone viral that outlines the way the world looks now, shared purely because in a years’ time it will pop up on news feeds and remind us all of the ‘history-making’ time we lived through. The status is titled, “Just so I never forget” and lists - among many things - the cancellation of funerals, church-services, weddings and sports. It includes reminders of panic buying, empty shelves, and the terrifying reality that currently many countries don’t have enough ventilators to support the breathing of all those who are anticipated to need them in the coming weeks.
There’s a weight to the time we’re living in and we know it.
In the midst of the global battle against anxiety, sickness, disease and death – all of which carry a seemingly unbearable weight of their own – we are also burdened by the apprehension of how we will come to judge the way in which we navigated this time. It weighs heavy.
Scripture comforts us in times of crisis by lifting our eyes to a future reality that gives us hope to make the heavy, light.
And yet…
(Praise God that as Christians, there is an ‘and yet’ that we can take refuge in.)
In the midst of homeschooling, home working, and home-everything-else this week, I’ve been reminded of the beautiful way in which Scripture comforts us in times of crisis such as this: Not by dismissing our earthly difficulties with contemptuous disdain, but by lifting our eyes to a future reality that gives us hope to make the heavy, light.
In 2 Corinthians 4, the Apostle Paul writes of the crushing persecution and perplexities of the life he is living: He details shipwrecks, beatings, frequent dangers, sleepless nights, hunger and thirst. And yet we see that rather than being bent low under the pressure, his head is lifted, and the heavy reality of his present troubles made light – in the view of the ‘weight of eternal glory’ that is to come.
Paul is given the power to remain in good heart because his faith has the eyes to see what is, as yet, unseen. The heaviness of Paul’s experiences is lifted from him because there is an even greater ‘weight’ – not a burdensome, encumbering, unmanageable weight – but a glorious, unseen, eternal weight, of glory, to come.
As I’ve read this passage this week it’s reminded me of how often I get things so badly back-to-front.
While I am so often consumed with the physical world I can see - and perceive eternity as an ephemeral future that I can’t quite get a grip on - this passage is a much-needed reminder that I need my vision to be refreshed.
We are living in heavy, heavy times, but we can take heart. Not because we are able to stand up under the weight of everything that is bearing down on us right now, but because we know it is passing away to reveal something more glorious, more wonderful, more breathtaking than anything our feeble imaginations could ever comprehend.
And when we lose sight of that – as we often will - the only way to refocus our vision is to dive back into the hope-giving, life-breathing, future-changing, gaze-fixing words of truth that we find in God’s Word.
O’ that we might learn to say with Paul,
“For our light and momentary troubles are producing for us a weight of glory that outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
If we could begin to do that, it would not only change how we experience today, it would surely change every day.
Take a look at our hand-picked selection of books that we hope will encourage and strengthen you by pointing you to God's unchanging word. There are also some books to help you share the hope that we have with others. Browse here.
