Bored by routine? Frustrated by delays? Discouraged?
Principle:
God wants us to grow in our understanding that Christ’s life and destiny is our life and destiny.
While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
– 2 Corinthians 4:18
So they departed from the presence of council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name’s sake.
-Acts 5:41
Paul’s sufferings support his Apostleship: Paul writes, (2 Corinthians 11:24-27) “from the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness of often, in hunger and thirst in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.”
All this is recounted in four verses, but they represent years of hardship for Paul. Yet, Paul persevered in his call, in toil and hardship, putting one foot in front of the next going from town to town to preach the message that he knew from experience would be more often rejected that accepted. He preached the cross of Christ and expected nothing better for himself. He was faithful year after year mile after mile, village after village, beating after beating. Yes, there were successes along the way: the power of the cross cannot be denied. But neither can is pain.
One of the diseases of the 20th century is impatience. We want quick success in whatever we do; if our efforts are not fruitful, we are tempted to turn to something else. Routine bores us; delays frustrate us.
Paul writes to the Thessalonians: –
For you remember, brethren, our labour and toil; for laboring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, we preached to you the gospel of God.
–1 Thessalonians 2:9
Yet Paul persevered in his call, moving from city to city (sometime involuntarily),determined to preach the gospel no matter what it cost.
We have a different calling and may not be able to take Paul’s apostleship as a direct model for our own vocation. But we can take encouragement from Paul making his way on through one more mountain, resolutely trudging along his way so that he might bring the good news of Jesus Christ to the next town, and then the town after that, until he finished the race.
Reflection:
Paul, Peter and the other disciples learned the secret of developing an eternal perspective in the midst of earthly problems they had to face. They were able to live above their circumstance and rejoiced even while being persecuted and beaten, because of their firm grasp on who they were in Christ and where they were going. In spite of his imprisonment, Paul could write,
Are you looking more at the “things which are seen” or at the “things which are not seen”? The former are temporary, but the later are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18).
Sol. Gerard Fernandes