For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.  For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” 

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.   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 only temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.   (2 Cor 4)

This week has been really difficult here at the Venable homestead, to say the least.  Just physically, we’ve had little to no sleep all around, runny noses, sore throats, throwing up, multiple teeth coming in, and on Wednesday both my back and neck went into a major flare that has pretty much left me bedridden for three days.  The domino effect of just that upon our lives (from work to sleep to relationships to emotions to even our finances, etc) has been what you might call ‘overwhelming.’   My wonderful, heroic husband, also in pain and sleep deprived, has had to be “all things to all people” this week, so to speak.   And of course, he’s been amazing… as always.   Truly, words cannot begin to speak of the love I have for my husband.  So as I was laying here today mostly praying for endurance and praying for Stephen (as he is preaching tonight at EGS), I was pondering the reality of those words “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” and the truth of this beautiful Treasure hidden in jars of clay.      

These last three days have relentlessly echoed the words above, ‘hard-pressed, perplexed, struck down… outwardly wasting away,’ yet far more REAL and stunning is that come what may, we are not crushed, we are not in despair (though admittedly, we sometimes feel like we are walking dangerously close to that precipice), we are not abandoned and never destroyed.   Strangely, we are somehow renewed in the crucible of this involuntary weakness… faithfully taken from glory to glory and strength to strength all the while.   We may not feel like this is true… we may not “SEE” it in the moment… but I’ve been traveling this road for long enough that I can look back on the journey and believe.  More than that, my heart is wholly captured by the One who makes this paradox a Reality simply by being Himself.    

As a side note, I love the message Mike preaches on this passage titled ”The Paradox of Experiencing God’s Glory”… if you don’t have it, you should get it (it’s an FCF Message dated Aug 21, 2005).  

So in weariness and pain, my soul is reminded of a God who came near… a God that loves us not from a far away throne, but in our very frames… bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh.  The God whose love the grave could not conquer.  The One who reigns forever and forever both over my heart and over all creation… who LIVES to intercede for us… and who is coming soon.   Jesus, who makes all things new.  

And I simply can’t lose heart, because these little troubles (and however big they may seem to us, they really are very little) are so fleeting in light of Him and the Eternal Glory set before me. 

I stumbled upon this earlier from a journal entry back in 2003 and it felt so true:

“Pain has been to me a sweet companion, leading me on a journey into the mystery of the Man who walked this road before me.  It has been to me a faithful escort into His heart – this God clothed in splendor and light from eternity to eternity that chose to display His name by covering Himself in a garment of skin and dwelling with His creation.  In His sovereign wisdom, He chose pain as a chariot that I would go my way past the outer courts of the King of Kings into the heart of a Man in love.  It is true that He comforts those who mourn, building foundations of sapphire and battlements of rubies in the heart of the afflicted.  The bitterness of the dark cold night leaves me with the sweet reality of a Mediator that so loved the world that He chose the very weakness of a Baby and the brutality of a Crucifixion…” 

“So I will wait – I will not throw away my confidence for I know He is my Reward.  I am sure of what I hope for and convinced of what I cannot see, for I believe in the God who lives – I trust the One who makes the invisible visible – the One who brought eternity forth from the womb of Time.  I will cling to the Unseen for I know that with Yeshua, all is revealed in time.  Jesus, You are the fullness of all that I desire… all my fountains are in You.”

So despite the week, the month, or the years gone by, here I lay from my bed clinging to the Unseen, the fullness of all I desire, my Hope and Reward… oh, thanks be to God for the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ.   For what is seen is only temporary, like a vapor, but what is unseen is eternal.