I’ve been thinking lately about some friends I’ve run across facing serious issues and really hard times. I myself have faced some tough things in my life. The question becomes, when you face really, really tough things in life – and I’m not talking about stubbing your toe – I’m talking about burying family members or serious life-threatening health issues – what do you do? WHAT DO YOU THINK?
There is a verse that I’ve run across that at first glance you can read it and think it’s absolutely ridiculous. You can read it as God making light of the truly hard things we go through.
17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
2 Cor 4:17 ESV
Think with me for a moment. You are staring into the casket of a close family member, maybe even as a parent of your child, or maybe your younger brother, or a dear parent. Or the doctor just called you into the office and used words that scare the living daylights out of you. Affliction. It’s part of life in a fallen, cursed world.
And the Apostle Paul has the absolute audacity here to call the affliction of this life “light” and “momentary”.
Are you kidding me?
Light? This feels like an absolutely crushing weight; one I cannot bear. To call it “light” is insulting. And “momentary?” I don’t think I will EVER get over this. I can’t see the end of ever thinking or feeling that the affliction I’m under is “momentary”. It’s practically insulting to call it such – you have no idea. If Paul is speaking under inspiration, then God do you really understand the depth of what I’m going through? Light and momentary??
But He does “get it” because He is not calling your affliction in this life, on its own, light and momentary. The Son of God came to this world in the person of Jesus Christ, and he was greatly afflicted, physically nailed to a cross to slowly suffocate, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. It was neither light nor momentary at the time. He knows. Hebrews tells us this:
2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:2 ESV
He understands. He endured incredible affliction at the hands of his own creation FOR THE JOY SET BEFORE HIM. Hard as it is for us to understand now – it’s the same for us and this verse from 2 Corinthians is trying to tell us that.
This verse is a comparison and we MUST get this. Our pain, our suffering, our affliction is ONLY light and momentary IN COMPARISON. In comparison to what? A WEIGHT of GLORY. Oh dear believer, please get this. There is something that awaits us, which we can’t even describe or imagine, that WILL make WHATEVER we suffer now SEEM light and momentary – but only in comparison when we are there. And that thing is this – the weight of the glory of our God.
Listen to the comparison – our afflictions now, as debilitating as they can absolutely and certainly be, God calls “light” in comparison to a “weight”. We can’t even imagine what awaits us when we see Him as He is, when we are in His presence, when His mercies to us are brand new every morning – forever. It is WEIGHTY. There is a weight to the GOODNESS we will experience from our God as it takes an infinite eternity for Him to express to finite creatures his infinite goodness, mercy, and grace. We truly just cannot imagine what awaits us.
And “momentary.” Let’s think about that. Even if we live to be a hundred years old, our life is but a vapor – a blink of an eye. The affliction we suffer now, even if it is a lifelong affliction, even if it lasts for decades – are still a blink WHEN COMPARED TO AN INFINITE ETERNITY. This weight of glory, which we can’t even imagine, is not just mind boggling good – it never ends. It will take us finite creatures an infinite amount of time to enjoy the good glory of our God.
So, let me say this carefully. The crushing weight of the affliction many of us suffer today is oh so hard. Debilitating. We never want to make light of it because it is real and it hurts. But – when we are there in the presence of our God – we will see that it actually was light and momentary, but only because we are now experiencing that weight of glory of God’s presence. In comparison, at that time, we will fully agree with this verse – as hard as it is to see now.
And that’s not all. There is a very important word in this verse – “preparing”. We don’t see it now, but this affliction we suffer is preparing us for that weight of glory. It is the backdrop against which His glory will overwhelm us. You know what I take from that word “preparing”? That there is no such thing as senseless, purposeless suffering. All our suffering has a purpose. It is preparing us for the unbelievable good ahead. There IS purpose to your suffering.
So – this verse brings HOPE in the midst of all the suffering. It’s prepping you for something that will blow your mind. Doesn’t make it any easier to go through it now, but just grab hold of this verse and let it comfort you that there is purpose in it. And one day, you too will call it light and momentary when you compare it to what you are experiencing in God’s presence – forever.
In other words, as incredulous as it sounds now in the midst of it all, He will make it all worth it – plus.
I write this from a personal perspective. My mom called me one day, hysterical, telling me to get to the hospital 4 hrs away because dad had a stroke and she needed me there ASAP. I jumped in the car and drove to the hospital to see my dad, who had always been as strong as an ox and able to do anything, laying there in the hospital bed unable to walk or talk. The stroke had taken out half his body. He couldn’t make even a syllable. I had to struggle to help this big, strong man get to the bathroom just a few steps from his bed. He had been out working in the yard, which he absolutely loved to do, and mom had seen him suddenly fall over.
I to this day can’t explain how this came about, but on that Sunday before I had to go and return to work (my brother was coming in Monday morning to help), SOMETHING in me brought this verse in 2 Corinthians to mind. I got up out of my chair and sat on the foot of my dad’s bed, looking him in the eye, and read this verse to him. I spoke to him about this stroke and his current condition being, as hard and debilitating as it was, a “light and momentary” affliction, but only in comparison to what awaits us as believers. Though he could not speak a sylllable, tears rolled down his cheek. I’ll NEVER forget it. I’ll thank God for that time as long as I live.
I had no idea that was the last time I’d see him alive. The next day a massive clot would break loose and flood his brain with blockages, destroying it. I had no idea when I sat on his bed and talked with him about this verse that the next day he would know the weight of that glory and that I’d be the one under affliction of losing my dad.
But you know what? It was preparing me for the eventual experience of the weight of the glory my dad got to experience the next day. It was only light and momentary in this sense. I draw HOPE from this verse, I draw strength from this verse. It is one of those “it will be worth it in the end, just trust me on that” verses from our eternal God.
And that is enough.
Dear fellow believer, whatever affliction you are barely enduring, know this – Jesus sees it, he’s been through affliction as well, and he promises that one day you’ll look back and call it light and momentary against the backdrop of the mind-blowing glory you will experience, heavy and eternal.