Things as yet unseen

So... we’ve just had a brand new dishwasher stolen from our locked garage. That sucks. Especially when you’re 12 days from your due date, emotionally and hormonally unstable, tired... and feeling like you’ve already had your share of things going wrong with extra expense in getting the bathroom finished, a cement mixer being stolen from your garden... etc. etc!

And yet... things like this force you to think about what is really important. Gutted that the dishwasher Dan’s parents had so generously given us for Christmas is gone – but we managed without and we will continue to manage without. Sad for them too though. Generally, it’s a pretty horrible thing when someone invades your space and steals something that is yours.

However, after allowing myself a good hour to phone the police and then have a good cry, the thing that came to mind was to focus on things as yet unseen. What do we normally spend our time thinking about? I’m guessing normally it’s “us” and how we feel, when we’re wronged... We’re not supposed to dwell on things that are not of God, but of things that are godly, righteous, good. Dwelling on the rubbish stuff that happens only serves to increase my ego of how everything in my life should be about me being happy and me being the centre. But instead, we’re to focus on things greater than ourselves...

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Philippians 4:8

Yes I’m disappointed and yes I’m frustrated... but to dwell on what has happened isn’t going to get me anywhere. I feel vulnerable and pretty much like a jar of clay... fragile and with the potential to break... but I know that I am more than just an empty jar... I have the treasure inside.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed... 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. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:7-9, 16-18

Sometimes life does press you pretty darn hard. Sometimes you do feel crushed, sometimes you are perplexed... but don’t lose heart – we are being renewed. I am being renewed...

I am choosing not to fix my eyes on the dodgy garage, dodgy area, dodgy people that have chosen to barge their way into my life... instead I am going to fix my eyes on what is unseen. My life is about more than me.