I was living in a far off land at one point of my life and playing volleyball on a dirt-filled court. Most of the stones had been removed from the court, but as I was soon to find out, not all of them.
It was normal to play barefoot and that’s what I was doing. As I lunged after the ball that was in my area, my big toe hit a rock. I looked down at my foot. My toe was gashed open and my nail partly ripped. It looked bad.
Because I am competitive and wanted to win the game. That was my focus.
When the game ended, I hobbled to the edge of the dirt lot and that’s when began to notice the pain. For the next three days I could hardly sleep at night as it was throbbing, hurting, and nasty looking.
But during the game? I hardly felt any pain. Why? Because I was focus on winning the game with my team.
It’s like that with all sports. We can take nasty hits and not even know until the next day when we are bruised and cut up.
It’s like that with life. When we have a focus not on ourselves but on a bigger objective, we can take hits and become bruised and cut up and not even know. Why? Because we are fixated on a bigger goal. Something else.
It’s only when we are not focused on something that we feel every little pain and hurt.
Paul says this:
“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you” (2 Cor 4:8-12).
Paul’s troubles are regularly putting him at death’s doorstep. He is beaten, hungry, shipwrecked, stoned, and everything we could possibly imagine for the sake of the gospel. Yet what does Paul say of these things?
“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Cor 4:16-18).
Paul acknowledges his suffering, but he says these are nothing compared to what is to come. His practice is to fix his eyes on what is unseen, as we all should. These troubles of ours are as of nothing compared to what is to come.
The result?
We do not lose heart.
Our inner self is being renewed continuously.
If we fix our eyes on this life, and all of its troubles, we will be weighed down.
If we fix our eyes on what is unseen and what is yet to come, we overcome.