The Weight of Glory (4) The Exclamation Point

“For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” 2 Corinthians 4:17

Is Producing – What is happening to us?  What are all these trials and tribulations really about?  “Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away.  Now it looks as if they’re here to stay.”  So sang the Beatles in 1965.  But the next line in the song pointed all of us in the wrong direction.  “Oh, I believe in yesterday.”  No, says Paul.  I don’t believe in yesterday.  I believe in the active, working-it-out energy of the God who is drawing us toward a future with Him.

Greek doesn’t have those little additions we call punctuation.  So, in order to shout out the truth, Paul has to combine two words.  Kata and ergazomai.  The first word is the exclamation point.  Intense.  The second is the active verb.  To bring about or accomplish.  Behind it is the idea that this is heavy-duty labor and strenuous effort.  “Put your backs into it, boys”, shouts the crew chief.

Now here’s the paradox.  Paul uses a verb that describes intense effort but he’s speaking about something that is merely momentary and easy to bear.  The intensity of his verb is not about how difficult the load is to carry.  That has already been settled.  My troubles are only burdensome when I insist on carrying them by myself.  No, the intensity of the verb applies to what is coming into being.  This Greek word really tells us that an incredibly wonderful, amazingly powerful, intensely personal transformation is occurring right before our eyes.  Something temporary and easily carried is being converted into something eternal and glorious.  And it’s all for me!

Before I came to believe, my troubles might have seduced me into longing for yesterday’s repose.  But not now!  Today I know that these troubles are the alchemy of glory.  The lead in my shoes is being turned into golden wings.  Today I trudge.  Tomorrow I fly.  I can renew my mind with the exclamation katergazetai! It’s working!  Or I can sink back into longing for the “good old days” and discover today’s despair.

Put the exclamation point in the right place today.  Every trouble is converting this world’s lead into the other world’s gold.