Fix Your Eyes

 Sometimes life is hard and things we're going through feel like heavy burden to carry. It feels like we're just barely making it through with the weight of all that's going on.

We're looking for hope. For a way through. For a way out.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 says:

"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 s temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

When I read these words a few days ago, I struggled with some of how it was written. I had to sit with it for a while to realize what Paul meant when he wrote these words.

The last couple months have been hard and heavy. Personal losses of an aunt and an uncle. Significant losses and hard times in my work family. It has just all seemed to pile up at one time. It has been a challenging and heavy time to walk through.

So reading words that called our troubles "light and momentary" didn't feel encouraging at first. My first thought was actually, you have no idea what's going on. When we're walking through hard times and loss, those things don't feel light or momentary. It feels like a weight on us that will never be lifted.

But, Paul, who wrote these words, knew what suffering and hard times were. He knew hardship. He knew the heaviness of loss. But, he still called our earthly troubles light and momentary.

How could he do this?

How can we do this in our troubles?

It's all about where we fix our eyes. That's what Paul tells us next in the passage from 2 Corinthians.

When our eyes are down, when they're focused on our circumstances, all we see is our troubles. That's when everything hard becomes overwhelming and never-ending.

The solution: to lift our eyes. To fix them on what is unseen and eternal. To fix our eyes on Jesus, as the writer of Hebrews tells us (Hebrews 12:2). This doesn't remove our troubles. It doesn't remove our loss. It doesn't take away the hard things.

But, it changes our focus.

When our eyes are fixed on Jesus, we see things differently. We see Him and then we see our circumstances through Him.

When our eyes are fixed on Jesus, we know we're not walking through whatever we're facing alone. We have a Companion who cares about us. Who wants to helps us and sometimes carry us through whatever we're facing.

That's the lesson I've learned that I'm trying to apply in my own circumstances right now. It's easy to look at the losses and struggles and be overwhelmed. That's where I was when I first read these verses. 

But, when I choose to fix my eyes on Jesus, something changes. Nothing about the circumstances has changed. The losses still exist. The hard times haven't disappeared. But, it's not as overwhelming because I'm paying attention to Jesus with me in the midst of them.

Once I saw all this, the words of 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 have become words of encouragement and hope.

"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."

What troubles are you walking through that seem anything but light and momentary?

Where are your eyes fixed? On your troubles? Or on Jesus?

How can you fix your eyes on Jesus?

What's Your Perspective?

 What is the lens you're looking at things through?

What is colouring the way you see things right now?

What's your persepctive?

A few days ago, I played what could arguably be the worst golf game I've played since I was just learning the game. And it seemed to keep getting worse the more holes I played.

I could blame the terrible round on many things. It was my first game of the season. I haven't gotten to play much in the last few years. The weather was crazy and undecided - sun, then rain, then sun, then rain again. The wind was making the ball go places that weren't planned.

And all of those things probably played a role in how bad it was. But, they weren't the most important thing impacting my game that day.

A few years ago, I inherited my Grandma's golf clubs. She wasn't able to play anymore and I was in need of new clubs, but couldn't afford them. So, since my swing is very similar to my Grandma's (if you golf, you know this is important), she gave me her relatively new clubs to use.

After a particularly bad shot, I was returning my club to my bag, when I heard my Grandma's familiar words in my head. It was something she reminded me of often in all the hours I spent on the golf course with her and my Grandpa as a teenager.

I was getting frustrated and thinking only about how my golf game was awful. How I couldn't swing a golf club correctly anymore. How it was never going to get better.

As I looked at the clubs my Grandma used, I heard the reminder: "It's just one bad shot. When you get to the ball, it's a new opportunity again. No matter how bad the shot was. You have another chance. Start fresh."

The way I was thinking on the golf course that day wasn't helping my game. I didn't see anything getting better. And I was actually making things worse. My thinking kept me going down a path that would make my game keep getting worse.

If there was going to be a chance of things improving, I needed to approach each shot as a new opportunity, rather than keep getting frustrated. I had to change my perspective. 

Doing so, didn't make my game improve immensely, but something did shift. Things didn't keep getting worse and I even managed to hit a few good shots in the remaining holes.

Our perspective matters. We need to be aware of what is impacting how we see. It matters. And not just on the golf course. It matters in all of life.

What is the lens you're looking at things through?

What is colouring the way you see things right now?

What's your perspective?

Where does it need changing?

What can you do to change it?

Acknowledging the Loss

 You've probably heard it referenced a lot. People talking about the losses of this pandemic. And there have been many for many of us.

Maybe we're tired of hearing about it.

Maybe we're not sure what we're experienced qualifies.

Maybe we just don't know what to think.

Maybe we would rather just ignore it all.

Tomorrow is my birthday.

Not one of those years we usually make a bigger deal of. But still my birthday.

For the last few weeks, my sister has been asking me what I want to do for my birthday. I've likely frustrated her with my lack of answers.

No patio I wanted to have supper on.

No takeout I wanted to pick up.

No food I wanted to make for supper together.

No activity I wanted to do.

Just nothing.

I've never been on to plan things for my birthday. I've done nothing for more of them than I can count. It's just never really been a big deal to me.

But this year, something was bothering me as my birthday drew near. And it made me want to just pretend it wasn't happening at all.

It took me a few weeks to figure out what was going on. What was bothering me was that I couldn't have a few friends over to my house, that I couldn't go out for a dinner or dessert with a group of friends.

And it had nothing to do with whether I actually would this time.

It was about not having the choice - for the second year in a row.

But, it was about more than that too. It was a realization of how long it's been since I could just be with my friends sharing food and games and laughter.

It reminded me of something I read a couple months ago. The article (that I can't find now) was talking about grief over the losses of the last year. Yes, the losses to death, the losses of jobs and security. But, not just those losses. The losses of the seemingly smaller things that are still important to us.

When I first read the article, I wasn't sure I agreed, so I just left it and didn't think much about it. Until the last couple days. Until I realized I was dealing with a loss. A different kind of loss than the ones we usually associated with grief, but a loss nonetheless.

We can probably all name some of those losses in the last year. And it can be easy to minimize them because they don't seem as big as someone else's loss. But that doesn't help us. We can't compare our losses to other's losses.

Whatever the loss we're dealing with, we need to acknowledge it for what it is. Allow ourselves to deal with the emotions that come from the loss. Take if to Jesus and let Him meet us in it.

Then we can begin to walk again.

So, tonight, I acknowledge the loss I'm feeling of that opportunity to be with my friends on my birthday or just a regular Saturday night games' night. It's been a long time. And those nights were important in many ways.

And tomorrow, I'll celebrate my birthday with the people I can be with. Thankful for what I do still have, even in the midst of the loss I feel.

It may not be what I wish it could be. And it still hurts. But something does change when it's acknowledged. Spoken out loud. Shared with somebody.

So tonight I leave you with some questions. Questions I've been wrestling with the last few days.

What loss are you feeling? No matter how small you think it is, it's still a loss. And it's not about comparing it to others.

Have you acknowledged it and taken it to Jesus?