Tag: Hope

Morning Musings: 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

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“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.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

If we let them, the troubles of this world will completely overwhelm us and leave us unable to pursue the path of Jesus with anything resembling the commitment we need in order to gain the benefits from it.  Problems in our marriages, problems with our kids, troubles at work, hardships at school, financial challenges, family issues, interpersonal doubts, and so on can fill our field of view until we don’t see anything else.  They become the lens through which we see everything else.  Depression (not clinical), discouragement, and malaise become our constant companions. Read the rest…

Morning Musings: 2 Corinthians 1:9

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“Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death.  But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

One of the questions that has haunted humans since sin entered into the world is why bad things happen.  How do we reconcile the presence of evil in the world with our innate sense that the world was designed to be good?  For those who have heard the Christian claims of a God who is perfectly loving and all-powerful at one and the same time this challenge becomes even more acute.   Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Psalm 102:12

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“But you, O Lord, are enthroned forever; you are remembered throughout all generations.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

In last Friday’s Morning Musing we saw the psalmist here pouring out his heart to God from out of a place of utter desperation.  His world was falling to pieces and it felt like even God Himself had abandoned him.  Now, while there are a couple of psalms that end there in the darkness, most of them make a turn at some point.  Here we find the turn for this one.  Everything was falling apart and it seemed life itself might be ending, but…   Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Ecclesiastes 7:10

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“Say not, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’  For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Have you ever longed for the “good old days”?  Why?  What about them did you desire?  Simpler times?  Different social interactions?  Fewer burdens?  No social media?

I have come to the conclusion that one of the major false gods of our culture is called Nostalgia.  The thing about Nostalgia, though, is that he is subtle.  No one realizes they are worshiping him at first, and even if you were to point it out to them, they’d just respond, “No, I’m not.  I’m just reminiscing about the way things were.”

And yet, this is what the worship of Nostalgia looks like.  We come to his altar and offer sacrifices of time and memory.  We offer cynicism about the current state of the world.  We offer judgments of people who are younger than we are.  In return, he gives us warm feelings about the past that are a comforting salve for the pressures of the present.   Read the rest…