None of us escape physical suffering, either facing this hard in our own life or in the life of someone we love. With difficulty, we witness a sharp and clear mind trapped in a body that crumbles from disease or aging. Or the opposite, with a confused, fading mind in a physical body that remains strong.

We wrestle with the “why” of such affliction, and struggle to understand the rightness and fairness of circumstances played out before us. And when these situations stretch out over time? We battle to endure with hope, and fight to keep the shadows of depression and despair from creeping in.

How do we weather these journeys? How do we maintain hope? How do we keep heart?

God provides the answers to our soul-wrenching questions and doubt-filled mutterings in His Word. Through Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, He lays out for us the secret of endurance as we watch with angst as bodies fail or disease accelerates decline. 

With inevitability, as we progress through life, our physical strength and stature wane. But also true, in Christ, our souls flourish. Often the sufferings that leave us weak will indeed be the things that strengthen our inner selves, cultivating rich harvests of the fruits of the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-23)  Through the work of the Holy Spirit, believers continue to grow stronger in the knowledge of, and in relationship with, God and we find ourselves being transformed into the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). 

Physically, life may be a slow, inevitable slipping down a slope. But, from the spiritual point of view, life is a climbing to the heights that lead to the presence of God. And, to joy and glory, peace and freedom we will revel in forever.

The things we suffer in this world diminish in intensity with one perspective: “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.”

The visible, transient life we survey, pales in comparison to the unseen. The invisible will some day be revealed, and for Christ-followers will include the glorious resurrected body, both eternal and incorruptible. Imperishable. Indestructible. Pure.

Paul encourages enduring all afflictions we encounter in the present physical world by keeping before us the glories of the yet unseen world. Yes, the things we see have their day and then cease to be. But the things unseen, the things of heaven, will last forever. 

“So we’re not giving up. How could we!
Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us,
on the inside, where God is making new life,
not a day goes by without His unfolding grace.
These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye.
The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow.
But the things we can’t see now will last forever.”

2 Corinthians 4:16-18; The Message

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