EVERYTHING in life is in constant need of repair. There is some type of maintenance, safeguarding, protecting, preventing, upkeep, conservation that is going on in each area of our lives. We have to shower. The dishwasher needs unloading. It’s time to shave. The car needs its oil changed. We need a hair cut. It’s time to change the A/C filter. There goes another tank of gas. It’s grocery shopping day. Another diaper changed. The house needs to be cleaned. I’ve got to write another to-do list. It’s laundry day. The baby needs to be fed again. We need to be fed again. You get the point.

Much of the energy we expend is given to this mundane task of preserving what we already have. We shouldn’t even have time to want more! But yet we do. We spend our time clinging to keep what we already have, yet always wishing for something more. It can be quite a miserable thought. But Jesus gives us something to think about:

2 Corinthians 4:16-18, “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

What hope that is. How convicting that is.

Here’s the hopeful part: there is so much more than this! Day-to-day doesn’t have to be day-to-day. Life doesn’t have to be about to-do lists and paychecks or “what’s for dinner?” and “what are we doing this weekend?”. That longing deep within us for something more is the eternity that God set in our hearts. Our momentary (day-to-day) affliction is producing an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. He is crafting a beautiful magnum opus with our every “Twinkle, twinkle little star” that we sing. But we must see beyond the seen.

Here’s the convicting part: 99% of what I focus on is the seen. So here’s my prayer. Lord, make me intentional about the unseen: people’s souls, their eternal future and the process of redemption taking place inside of me. These are eternal. Place eternity on it’s rightful throne in my heart.