Eat Your Vegetables

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far 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. (2 Corinthians 4:8-9, 16–18, NIV 1984).

My Musings – Our Father is always looking out for us. Even when life seems to be a “disgusting slimy blob.” Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:11, NIV 1984). In retrospect, we come to realize that no matter how unpleasant they seemed at the time, they really were “light and momentary” compared to the character that it built into us. The only thing achieved in this life that we can take out of this world and into the next. And we “ain’t” seen nothing yet, that the “eternal glory [will not] far outweigh” them all. We were not “crushed” or “destroyed.” We had no need to “despair” or “lose heart.” For we were never “abandoned.” And whether it felt like it at the time, “inwardly we were being renewed [transformed] day by day.”

My Advice – “We have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it.” (Hebrews 12:9, NIV 1984). So “endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons [and daughters].” (Hebrews 12:7, NIV 1984). Fix your eyes on our unseen Father. And don’t forget to eat your vegetables. And for my son, who reads my musings everyday, dip them in applesauce, they’ll go down better.