I have a loonie here that I want to give away. Who wants it? Before I give it to you I want to burn off some of the germs that are on this coin. (Hold coin in candle flame with a pair of pliers for a couple of seconds.) Done. Go ahead. Take the coin. Did your fingers get burned? No? That’s good. I bet they were a little hot though. Would you do it again? Would you endure hot fingertips for another loonie? Sure? You’d put up with a little discomfort for another quick buck, wouldn’t you? Sorry, I don’t have another loonie to give away but you can keep the one you have. Thanks for your help. (Object lesson idea for Eldon Weisheit.)
This thing with the loonie illustrates the life of a believer. Right now our days are packed with aches, stress, and frustrations that make life hot to handle. So hot that we may even wonder if it’s worth being a Christian. It is worth it of course and today the Apostle Paul assures us that we will go from “Ow!” to “Ooh!” and from “Arrgh!” to “Aaah!” for our present groaning WILL give way to future glory.
Paul was no stranger to suffering. By the time he wrote his letter to the Christians in Rome he had been pelted with stones and left for dead in Lystra, he had been run out of Ephesus and Thessalonica, and had been beaten and imprisoned in Philippi. What kept this man going? Why did he continue to hold on to his faith in Jesus when that was the source of most of his problems? Paul himself explains: “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). Paul says that if he were to put all of his sufferings on a scale and weigh them against the future glories of heaven, he was confident that there would be no comparison. In the same way our present sufferings, no matter how weighty they may seem to us, are not in the same weight-class as the future glories that await us.
That’s interesting but how does that help me get through another grinding day at work or through the next anniversary of my loved one’s death? Well when I was growing up in Japan we made an annual trip to a cabin on a mountain lake. Before the expressway was built, this trip took over eight hours on narrow, winding mountain roads. Without air conditioning the ol’ station wagon was hot, humid, and smelly since we were often stuck behind diesel belching trucks. There wasn’t a lot of room either in the car because there were six of us plus the family cat. Does that sound like a fun? No. But to tell you the truth I don’t remember much about the trip there while I do remember lots about the cabin, the lake, and the mountains. In other words the joy of spending time at the lake far outweighed the inconvenience of getting there. If we’re willing to put up with inconveniences now to get to our favourite vacation spot, then putting up with the inconvenience of this life to get to the immeasurable glory of the next life should be a piece of cake!
Oh to be sure, the things we go through in this life are not all that fun. The trials we face will cause us to groan. But we’re not alone in that, says Paul. All creation groans at the frustration of being part of this sin-filled world. You know well how your body groans as your elbows snap, knees crackle, and ankles pop when you get out of bed in the morning. But the mountains, the trees, the oceans are groaning too. If we were to speak to the wind, for example, he may say something like this: “I serve a useful purpose. I blow ships across the sea. I sweep smoke and foul odours from cities. I offer cool refreshment to people on hot days. But sometimes I get whipped up into a frenzy and then I go on a rampage. I just can’t help myself and I end up destroying everything in my path.” “I know what you mean” the rain could cut in. “There is so much good that I can do. I make the earth glisten. I give nourishing drink to plants. I can even break up the sun’s rays into a rainbow of color. But when I get out of control I make rivers flood. I can drown the beauty that I helped make. I can even kill people!” (Samuel J. Roth) Yes, how frustrating for the wind and the rain God had originally created to be good. And how exasperating for the diamond that adorns the ear of a drug dealer, or the oil that’s powering a get-away car. That’s not what God had made them for but that’s now life in this sinful world and there’s nothing they can do about it but groan in frustration.
But nature knows that its groaning is not hopeless (Romans 8:20). After Adam and Eve’s failed takeover bid, God cursed the ground. But before he did so he gave Adam and Eve the promise of a saviour (Genesis 3:15) - a saviour who would one day free mankind and all creation from sin’s curse. So nature’s groaning is not the last gasp of a popped balloon; it’s the crying of a woman in childbirth. In other words nature understands that our earthly trials are not just transitory; they’re transitional (Fred Lindemann). Our “Ows!” and “Arrghs!” will not just end one day, they will give way to “Oohs!” and “Aaahs!” when we see the glory that awaits.
Now here’s the awesome thing about the glory of the next life. Paul says that this glory will be revealed in us (Romans 8:18)! We won’t just be spectators to the glory of the next life like audience members on an extreme makeover show. No, God will glorify us! How? For starters our aches and pains will be taken away. Our loneliness and our inability to keep from sinning will be quashed. We’ll be given bodies that never get sick and will never die. But only those who have faith in Christ Jesus will experience this. Those who think they can get to heaven without Jesus will find that their present pains and frustrations are nothing compared to the pain of God’s fiery eternal judgment in hell. But this isn’t what God wants for you so come, learn about the glory Jesus won for you so that you may experience it!
Nature is so excited for this coming glory that Paul says it “stretches its neck” in anticipation of the day (Romans 8:19). Picture a child three rows back from the front row on a parade route. He stands on his tiptoes and stretches his neck to catch a glimpse of the parade floats coming down the street. Do we show that kind of eager expectation for the glories of heaven or have we become too enamoured with this world to care? That’s foolish. That’s like taking refuge in a cold dank cave during a storm and thinking it could become a nice place to live permanently if only we dry-walled it, put in a home entertainment system, and built a porch off the front. And so we get busy trying to fix up the unfixable forgetting that a large suite, already paid for, waits for us at an all-inclusive resort up the hill.
No, the trip to heaven isn’t an easy one. Your pain and frustration along the way may be so great that you seek relief from it through alcohol or drugs, or even with thoughts of taking your own life. When those temptations come remember why God allows struggles into our life. He allows them to strengthen us. Scientists of Biosphere 2, that experimental dome in Arizona meant to simulate conditions of a domed environment on Mars, were puzzled to find that the trees they had planted in the dome grew well enough until they got to certain height and then would just topple over. The reason? There was no wind in the domes and without the stress of wind, the roots didn’t have a chance to “exercise” and get strong enough to hold up a mature tree. And so the trials God allows to come into our life make us stronger for they drive us back to his Word where faith-roots grab on to God’s promises that keep us stable no matter how strong the wind of adversity is blowing in our life.
Still, it’s easy to become impatient as we await the glory of the next life to be revealed. But don’t grumble against God the way you might grumble about a child who’s taking his time to complete an errand. God is not our slave; he’s our Lord. Anyway this glory that awaits us is not something that belongs to us by right. It’s ours by grace. So just as you would never go to a dinner party and complain: “How much longer do we have to wait until we eat?” Don’t complain to God about his timetable for bringing us into glory. He’s giving us this glory out of the goodness of his heart and only because his Son paid our way by dying on the cross for our sins – including our sins of impatience and grumbling. When the waiting gets long just shrug your shoulders and say, “That’s O.K. I’ve waited this long. I can wait a little while longer. I know that what Jesus my saviour is preparing for me will be worth the wait no matter how long.”
It sure would be wonderful though wouldn’t it if we could at least see a faint glow of the glories that await us? That would certainly keep us going. But that’s not God’s way. The life we now live, we live by faith not by sight. That doesn’t mean that faith is blind. For faith sees God’s promises and therefore walks confidently on trusting that the “Ows!” and “Arrghs!” of this life will turn into “Oohs!” and “Aaahs!” God guaranteed it with Jesus’ resurrection. So hang in there. Your groaning WILL give way to glory. Amen.
