So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:18 NIV
Even as I write this morning, I feel overwhelmed with an endless to-do list. When and how will I finish all these projects? I am sure you are facing something similar today and can understand the way I feel. Life’s many obligations always come with emotions. That’s why the Bible gives us the antidote against desperation: Don’t panic. Look at things in a different way. Reframe what you see in front of you. To reframe is simply to look at a situation from a different perspective. Or, put another way, it is placing the “picture” of what you need to do or how you feel within a new frame. I love that!
Paul was an expert on reframing – enduring all kinds of hardships yet being content in every situation. He reframed his troubles this way: “For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever” (2 Corinthians 4:17,18 NLT). This is what I mean by reframing: experiencing – by God’s help – events, ideas, concepts, and emotions within more positive alternatives.
I am looking at my list again as an email arrives. It’s from my friend who is dying of cancer. As I pause to read her message, one sentence touches me deeply: “I am blessed,” she says. “It is almost twelve years since my original tumor burst, and I could have died then, but God has been good to me.” What an authentic example of reframing one’s life! As I pray for her, I ask God to fix my eyes not on what is seen (the temporary) but on what is unseen (the eternal). And what about my day’s to-do list? I look at it again and tell myself, You can reframe this. Start with all the things that will impact your eternal life, and everything else will fall into place.
Today, if you are feeling overwhelmed, stop, reframe, and pray. God’s Word affirms that our present troubles are small and fleeting. So place them in God’s unseen, eternal frame.
Covered and Carried 2021, Copyright © Pacific Press Publishing Association