II Corinthians 4:18
“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is not seen, For what is seen is temporary and what is unseen is eternal.”
After Hurricane Katrina, I went with a group of people to Gulfport, MS, to help clean up. My group was working on the home of a lady whose home had been flooded and who had lost all of her possessions. She lived in that home for 30 years, and it contained an unknown number of memories. Everything was gone. Practically all of her financial security was lost. Her home was being gutted and rebuilt, but she said to me, “Preacher, I felt so alone that night, so vulnerable. I climbed in my attic to get out of the reach of the water. The next morning the sun came out, but it was still dark. I also felt strengthened unlike any other time in my life. Someone else was with me. I couldn’t see, and I could only feel the presence. Through all of this I have learned a valuable lesson. There is more to life than lumber and bricks. There is more to life than shingles and drapes.” She was right. The physical passes but the spiritual endures. You may be reading this today, and you have seen your home, your dream, your marriage, your life get washed up and seeming to go up in smoke. Remember, God doesn’t shield you from despair, but neither is God going to allow despair to have the last word. Beyond the tragic and trying moments of life there is an eternal spirit that holds life together. Trust God in the mist of the tough stuff and know the physical will pass but the spiritual will remain, and it is the spiritual that will hold you together when everything else is falling apart.
“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is not seen, For what is seen is temporary and what is unseen is eternal.”
After Hurricane Katrina, I went with a group of people to Gulfport, MS, to help clean up. My group was working on the home of a lady whose home had been flooded and who had lost all of her possessions. She lived in that home for 30 years, and it contained an unknown number of memories. Everything was gone. Practically all of her financial security was lost. Her home was being gutted and rebuilt, but she said to me, “Preacher, I felt so alone that night, so vulnerable. I climbed in my attic to get out of the reach of the water. The next morning the sun came out, but it was still dark. I also felt strengthened unlike any other time in my life. Someone else was with me. I couldn’t see, and I could only feel the presence. Through all of this I have learned a valuable lesson. There is more to life than lumber and bricks. There is more to life than shingles and drapes.” She was right. The physical passes but the spiritual endures. You may be reading this today, and you have seen your home, your dream, your marriage, your life get washed up and seeming to go up in smoke. Remember, God doesn’t shield you from despair, but neither is God going to allow despair to have the last word. Beyond the tragic and trying moments of life there is an eternal spirit that holds life together. Trust God in the mist of the tough stuff and know the physical will pass but the spiritual will remain, and it is the spiritual that will hold you together when everything else is falling apart.
– Dr. Tim Thompson