2 Corinthians 5.4 4 For while we are in this tent, we
groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be
clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be
swallowed up by life. (NIV)
This week I’m groaning – I worked hard and this old body
keeps asking: Dude! How long you gonna keep doing this to me!? I unloaded about
50 bags of cement and sand on Thursday and turned right around on Friday and
helped move a very large, very heavy work bench. My arms groaned and twitched
all night last night. And with each passing day it ain’t gettin’ any easier.
Life on the planet is what we know, but life in heaven is
what we long for. Life on the planet is short, temporal, physical, and rife
with sin, sickness, pain, confusion, disappointment and all kinds of other less
than pleasant things. And in all of these things we groan. How long we ask. What’s the use?, we sigh.
There is, within all of us, (because God put it there) a
longing to be different than what we are, and free from what we are subjected to. It’s
God’s design that we long for such things because there is within all of us the
touch of God’s hand and His design. Just because life on earth is groan-worthy
it doesn’t mean it’s without God’s presence and purpose. And that’s why Paul
said, “…we try to persuade others.” (V. 11)
For most, I think we groan without knowing. We live, we
work, we survive – and when the morning
light comes creeping in, we get up and do it again. Amen (Jackson Browne). It’s an everyday of everyday. But there are
things in our lives that transcend the everyday-ness of everyday – it’s a
groaning in the hopefulness of tomorrow and the freedom from what I term the “friction”
or the retardation in which we exist.
I think this applies to all humans because all of us, regardless of the lives
we live and the beliefs we hold, are a gift from God to this planet and to the
rest of humanity. And within each of us is His design, and the natural
inclination to groan, for something more.
And God gives each one the something more for one simple
exchange: belief there is Something more only from Him.
Today, sore and tired, I groan because my body longs for
the youth and vitality it once had. But today also my life and being groans for
the completeness of what has been started in me and will only be finished in
eternity with Him. The hourglass is running out on what I call life here on
earth. But the moment is coming when all moments will be eternities upon eternities
in His presence for ever and ever… that, is something more worth groaning for…
Father, You have called me heavenward in Jesus and
whether I recognize it or not I groan for that because You’ve placed in me a
longing for something more. Thank You for the gift of groaning and the reminder
that as marvelous as this life can be at times, it is nothing compared to what
You have in store for us in our eternal home present with You. May I live today
in hope and gratitude that all along You have made provision to quench my
thirst for something more. Amen.
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