The Weight of Glory

 I started writing this column 16 years ago in 2009 when I was a young man of 62. It has been published in newspapers from Texas to California, Washington, Pennsylvania, Florida and states in between.  Online it has received over 400,000 views.  I reached my seventies without spending a night in the hospital.  In the last 6 years I have been hospitalized twice.  Both were emergencies that would have been fatal without exceptional medical care.  I am grateful. Next week, I will celebrate my 79^th birthday.  I am bumping up on 80!

 Aging is inevitable.  The Apostle Paul expressed his view of aging like this. “Therefore, we do not lose heart, but though our outer person is decaying, yet our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal,” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

 Two months ago, my high school graduating class met for our 60^th year reunion.  About two thirds of our class still survive, but we hardly recognize one another.  For the last 10 years 4 of us who were classmates in first grade meet annually with a few others who attended the same high school.  Next year we hope to add a fifth person from our first-grade class. As Paul put it, our outer man is decaying.  We cannot replace the friends of our childhood, and we cannot hide old age.

 Regardless of our aging outer man, we all have an “inner man.”  Most of us don’t think of ourselves as old, until we try move, especially when we try to move fast.  For some the inner man is decaying along with the outer man, becoming more cynical, bitter, resentful, isolated and alone.  But for those who have faith in Christ, the opposite happens.  Our inner man is being renewed daily so that, in spite of whatever afflictions we endure, an eternal weight of glory continues to grow. 

 I have a best friend whom I have known for 50 years.  He is 91. I performed weddings for all his children and his granddaughter.  Eight years ago I preached his wife’s funeral.  We visit almost daily.  Increasingly he spends his days in prayer for others, looking forward to that day when the weight of glory that is within will be realized in heaven.

 Putting aside the ambitions, doubts and uncertainties of youth, we find increasing contentment in the small things … watching grandchildren grow, encouraging the younger generation, looking forward to eternal life in another dimension whose beauty far exceeds the majesty of mountains, forests, rivers lakes and oceans.  Science constantly reminds us that all that is seen is temporary, including not only the earth and our solar system, but the universe as well.  As Paul affirms, it is the unseen that sustains and inspires us.