Road Signs

             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, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (II Corinthians 4:16-18)

 

This is what happened when we have hope. There may be moments, or even a few days, when we lose focus, but as long as we keep or can return to the hope that things can and will get better (if only in heaven,) we’ve won half the battle. The other half involves keeping things in perspective. I addressed that a little yesterday, but it’s important enough to deserve at least two days.

To have the right perspective, or, as Viktor Frankl puts it, to have a “why” makes all the difference. If you know your why, he says, you can endure any “how.” I’m not sure he’s completely right about that, but he’s at least more right than wrong. I suspect a tiny why won’t keep you through a big how.

But part of the problem is that it’s easy to lose one’s way, or one’s way. Our strong emotions tend to reduce everything to the size and shape of the source of that emotion. And when we don’t know the way to where we’re going, we have no way to gauge how near or far our destination is, so we’re more likely to worry about running out of gas, getting lost, and even being in an accident. When we are shunted off to a detour or the highway becomes a parking lot, other anxieties filter in.  Sometimes, we may even wonder if we’ll ever get there and if it's worth the trip.

This is one of the reasons we should probably spend time studying heaven. Part of our lack of endurance is that we don’t really believe Heaven or God is really real, or that that reality has meaning for us today. It’s also a reason to study Scripture and life sufficiently to understand the road signs we may encounter. That’s my prayer for today that God would give me road signs along the way, reminders of the road I’m on and my destination, warnings that there’s a rest stop coming up and billboards that tell me that I can get more gas, etc.