Renewed

So we aren’t depressed. But even if our bodies are breaking down on the outside, the person that we are on the inside is being renewed every day. Our temporary minor problems are producing an eternal stockpile of glory for us that is beyond all comparison. We don’t focus on the things that can be seen but on the things that can’t be seen. The things that can be seen don’t last, but the things that can’t be seen are eternal. We know that if the tent that we live in on earth is torn down, we have a building from God. It’s a house that isn’t handmade, which is eternal and located in heaven. We groan while we live in this residence. We really want to dress ourselves with our building from heaven— since we assume that when we take off this tent, we won’t find out that we are naked. Yes, while we are in this tent we groan, because we are weighed down. We want to be dressed not undressed, so that what is dying can be swallowed up by life. Now the one who prepared us for this very thing is God, and God gave us the Spirit as a down payment for our home. (2 Corinthians 4:16—5:5, CEB)

Don’t sweat the small stuff. And in life everything is the small stuff compared to what is to come with the kingdom of God.

What we see and struggle with here won’t last, but eternal life and the kingdom of God will last. We are living in the already but not yet of the kingdom. The kingdom is all around us and we get glimpses of it, but we usually don’t perceive it. But when it is fully revealed then we will know and be known fully.

We are a part of what is yet to be already.

Live in love and make the kingdom visible.

Loving People. Loving God.