Recently, I heard someone say,
"...that trials could be compared to gripping
a steering
wheel during a bad rain storm. When the storm, is over we can
finally
relax and loosen our grip".
This got me to thinking about my commute
to work. Approximately seven years
ago, I commuted to a job as a
contractor for a few months. It was a long,
hard, stressful drive and,
literally, when I got to work, I would peel my
fingers off the steering
wheel. Seven years later, I am basically making
that same commute,
actually getting off at the same exit, and in the same
basic location where
I worked before. But, interestingly, even though the
traffic is worse, the
drive is a little longer, I find I don't grip the
steering wheel as hard or
as often. Why is that? The answer is that over the
course of seven years of driving in heavy traffic, I have adjusted to it,
I've accepted it as "life" in Atlanta.
In a similar way, as I have
grown in the Lord and grown through my trials, I
have learned to live in
such a way that I am not always gripping the steering
wheel.
You could say that, although I am going through some trials similar to
those
seven years ago, I am not gripping the steering wheel as hard or as
often.
And I do not grip the steering wheel in all the same situations as I
did
before.
The truth is that, as we grow in the Lord,
our trials will not affect us in
the ways they
once did. Let's face it, life is full of trials.
So even when
you get over a big trial, don't be surprised if another
one is on its way. It
is all part of the growing process in our relationship
with our LORD (I Peter
1:7).
In II Corinthians 4:17, Paul amazingly calls the trials in his
life "light
affliction". Paul went through many
things - many, many presecutions like
most of us will never know, and he
called these "light
affliction" in
comparison to eternal
rewards that awaited him in heaven. He then says in
II
Corinthians 4:18 - "While we look not at the things which are seen
[light
afflictions and
trials], but at the things which are not seen: for the
things
which are seen [light afflictions and trials] are
temporal; but the things
which are not seen are eternal."
In other words, these are temporal,
short-lived
afflictions and trials (the most they could last is 70, 80, 90
years), and
when we look at those things that are not seen (the heavenly, the
eternal), this life
is so short in comparison to ETERNITY. This is the
perspective that we must
have!
If you are ever going to live where your afflictions are
considered light,
you must get an eye for the eternal. May this bring
you encouragement and
also help you to get your eyes off "the
temporal" and onto "the eternal".
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