Today’s devotional comes to us from Rev. Sarah Crowther-Dixon. Sarah joined the TCU community in January as the Campus Minister for UKirk TCU. Before her time here, she oversaw all faith formation and pastoral care for children, youth, and families at First Presbyterian in Austin, TX. Sarah is extroverted, empathetic, and good-humored, and she has an incredible ability to foster meaningful community among college students.
We are thrilled to have Sarah a part of our TCU community, and I hope you enjoy her words today!
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For our slight, momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen, for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.
Reflection:
When I describe my own college experience, I usually say it had mostly high highs and some low lows. I loved my experience at Oklahoma State but it also came with anxiety for me. I was anxious being far from home, doing new things, and balancing it all. My anxiety also didn’t feel like “slight, momentary affliction.” The lows in life never feel like momentary affliction as Second Corinthians says. Those words almost feel like a mocking of the real hard times in life!
Our afflictions can look like loss, toxic relationships, systemic racism, debilitating mental illness, poverty, and rights being threatened. These definitely don’t seem like slight momentary issues to me! Or to our loving and protective God. But I believe the hope comes from verse 18, as it first did for me when I read it at 19 in my dorm room.
Not all of our troubles in life will be slight or momentary, but they will always be temporary. All of our troubles and afflictions are temporary from the eternal viewpoint of God. One day there will be no crying, there will be no fighting, as singer Cleo Sol reminds us of the scripture in Revelation.
Lent is a time to sit in the discomfort of the cross and of our afflictions. We can sit in this because we know it is temporary. We know that Easter is coming, and that the unseen eternal we are promised will be so glorious, glorious beyond our finite imagination! So know that your temporary afflictions are just that, temporary. Even if it is hard, this wasting away is temporary and our eternal God is with you. Close your eyes and feel the unseen eternal love, hope, and peace peaking through.
Let us pray.
Loving God, meet us in our troubles and afflictions. Help us when they seem too heavy to bear, or when we are witnessing another’s burdens weighing heavy. Send us reminders of your eternal love and glory, day by day. Amen.