Seeing the Unseen

I recently did a series of blogs about spiritual prayer and the role of the Spirit in praying.  Now I want to do a series of blogs about spiritual living and the role of the Spirit in setting our vision for life.  When Paul writes his second letter to the church at Corinth, he says, “So we do not lose heart.  Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.  For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but the things that are unseen.  For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.

This passage begins with an admonition to not lose heart.  There are times in life where it is hard to not lose heart.  Hard times seem to be marked by loss.  Maybe you have lost someone you loved or a job. Maybe you have lost your health, or the sense of security. There are lots of things you could loose or feel like you have lost. Psychologist speak of the emotions surrounding loss as a type of grief.  When you find yourself surrounded by loss, it becomes easy to lose heart.  Likewise, it becomes hard to be spiritually encouraged and uplifted when the sense of loss is all around you.

So, is Paul’s statement of not “losing heart” a fanciful dream?  Do his words have any impact for the difficult days we find ourselves enduring?  If we look closer at what Paul chooses to emphasize, we will see that he is focusing on the dichotomy of several things.  He speaks of outer and inner self, of wasting away and being renewed, the light momentary afflictions and the eternal weight of glory.  Paul does not live under a false illusion, and he knows the affliction of life can cause us to feel like we are dying or wasting away.  However, Paul also knows, there is something greater, a glory that causes that which is within us to be empowered and renewed.

For Paul, the difference between losing heart and being spiritually encouraged is determined by your vision.  Where you set your sight sets your perspective.  You can choose to look at the outward afflictions and waste away, or you can look at the eternal weight of glory and be inwardly renewed.  You vision sets your direction.

I was reading a book yesterday that talked about snowboarding and how to direct the board.  There are certain ways to lean your body and steer the board down the hill, but the most important factor seems to be the direction of your head.  Where you look has a huge impact on where the snowboard goes.  The same is true in life, where you look impacts where you go.

Paul is directing our sight to the greater glory and not the lesser afflictions.  But only if only it were that easy.  There is a world of difference between saying the way something should be and doing things the way they should be done.  The good news is Paul can helps us understand why looking at things the right way is so hard.  We struggle to actually see the weight of eternal glory and how it can renews us inwardly, because we are looking for something that is unseen.  How do you see what is unseen?

In order to see an unseen world, you have to first believe there is an unseen world to see.  The first chapter of the Bible tells us that the unseen world was in existence before the seen world and that God created the seen out of the unseen.  The invisible spiritual world was in place before the physical universe was a reality, and it will be in place with the earth is no more.  God dwells in the in the unseen spiritual world and interacts in our visible and tangible reality.

Developing the ability to see the unseen is the epitome of walking by faith and the perfect example of being led by the Spirit.  The writer of Hebrews says that “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  Hebrews 11:1. Did you catch that?  Faith is a conviction that the unseen is real.  If you and I fix our physical eyes on the seen things of this world, we will dismiss or ignore the unseen.  If you and I could fix our eyes of faith on the unseen, it would change how we view the seen.  We do not lose heart because our eyes are fixed on the unseen and not the seen.  We do not lose heart because we know the unseen is eternal and has greater weight that the temporal.