What Are You Looking At?

        There’s a story about a cantankerous man who was always ready to start a fuss. He was so ornery and combative that when he died, his adult children had this epitaph etched into the headstone on his grave: "WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?" As it turns out, that’s not a bad question to consider. It’s one I’m convinced God would have us to ask ourselves. One particularly powerful passage that makes that clear is 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, which reads as follows: "Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal." The apostle Paul penned those words 2,000 years ago. "What are you looking at?" is a question that seems to leap out of that passage! And, as it does so often, the Bible cuts to the chase and confronts us with the simple but profound thought that, after all is said and done, we are spending our lives primarily "looking" at and living for one of only two kinds of things – "things which are seen" – or "things which are not seen." Here’s the real kicker – all these "things" fit inescapably into one of only two possible realms – "temporary" or "eternal." Millions live their life obsessed daily with and chasing after seen things! Seen things are everywhere you look! From the stressful to the sublime, from the good to the bad, from the pleasurable to the painful, from the happy to the hellish, from the delightful to the deadly – we are surrounded by and immersed in "things which are seen." What we sometimes forget is precisely what the devil wants us to forget – all these "things which are seen" are temporary. As in Temporary! That’s TEMPORARY! From cars to clothes to cancer: TEMPORARY! From pain to pleasure to possessions: TEMPORARY! From jobs to jeans to joy (based on material circumstances, that is): TEMPORARY! We ought to write it on our eyelids and stamp it indelibly on our hearts – if you can see it, if it is of a material physical nature, it is TEMPORARY! Oh, and I almost forgot – these bodies we live in and obsess over and spend so much time and money and energy trying to decorate and beautify and preserve – the apostle declares the uncomfortable but undeniable and unalter- able truth in verse 16 that they are "perishing" (ESV "wasting away"). Little wonder, then, God would urge each of us to ask ourselves, "Self, what are you looking at?" Are you primarily fixed and focused on seen, temporary things or unseen, eternal ones?

Joan Rivers said, "Looking 50 is great if you’re 60." Whether 5 or 15 or 95 – the outward man is perishing. Does that reality along with the stress and suffering and disappointment you see in life discourage you? It does so many. Remember the apostle’s words: "Therefore we do not lose heart." If you are a discouraged Christian, fainting instead of flourishing, pulling back instead of continuing to serve, I would urge you to carefully consider this question: "What are you looking at?" Have you lost sight of Heaven? Are your eyes fixed on temporary things or eternal ones? Just asking. 

– Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN