It is very, very easy to have tunnel vision – to see only what is right before us through our own set of frames. This is especially easy when going through a difficulty – we often notice what is mainly dark, gloomy, and negative and that caged-in vision tightens our minds and makes us feel hopeless and trapped. 



This happened to me one summer morning several years back when, in a mere matter of minutes, I suddenly lost all movement on the left side of my face. That day actually turned into a very long year – a year in which the doctors told me I would have permanent damage to my 7th cranial facial nerve.

The word permanent was not the word I wanted to hear and it became the term that cloaked my thoughts. All I could think about was a permanent facial droop, a permanent taping of my eyelid at night, a permanent feeling of sadness when I smiled, a permanent holding back laughter because of how I looked, and a permanent loss of identity.

So I’m sure you can understand my pause when I read this verse,  “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.  For our 
light affliction…………” 

The word “light” stopped me cold.
It stood out – a lot.
This trial light? Ha! Riiiight.
I closed my Bible and wanted to quit reading. But instead of my mind shutting completely down, these words of Jesus surfaced as though whispered right into my ear,
“Come unto me all you that are heavy burdened….for My yoke is…light.”

Hmm, yes. What was heavy, my burden and what was light, His.

So I opened my heart to His voice and turned to the Corinthians passage again and this time, with His eyes, I noticed all the other words I hadn’t before. This time, it seemed that God was drawing me out of my tunnel vision {{{in rhythmic jolts}}} with each powerful syllable:

 “Our light affliction which is but for a moment works FOR us a
far…more…ex…cee….ding…and e…ter…nal…weight…of…glo…ry”

He was drawing my perspective away from the lens of an electron microscope and zooming it out through a mega telescope so I could see
So. Much. More.
 

 Just then, an image came to my mind:
I pulled a long piece of hair from my head (Find one if you can; it will help you visualize too.) I held it up high in front of me and imagined eternal space. To the left of the hair is eternity past with no beginning and to the right, eternity future with no end.

There is just the weight of forever and ever.

Now look at the hair again: this is your life, and within that life is your current difficulty. 
This earthly existence, as important and big as it looks on inspection, is in reality only momentarily intersecting eternal space and unending life. Within that perspective, that hair is small, almost invisible. It is a blip in the humongous expanse before you.
It is passing through all the stunning nebulas, radiating stars, colorful planets and massive, distant galaxies. It is in the midst of much more splendor and beauty. Now imagine the weight of that immeasurable universe and then beyond that imagine heaven,
the Huge, Wide, Vast There, where the things unseen shrink everything seen.

And then, most glorious of all,
HE is right before you, face to face – present then, and in the now.
You are captivated, radiant, unashamed
and that heavy weight that was so huge and
pushing. your. shoulders. down.
now suddenly feels easy and light.
And you hear Him say as He pulls your face up toward His,
“Learn of Me…..and you shall find rest for your soul…..”
Tears fill to your eyes as you exhale, “Be thou my vision.”

When He tells us that He is working our “light affliction” into an “eternal weight of splendor,” we can by faith wait with anticipation as to what that treasure WILL be. We know we will come out better on the other side – and we will know Him better too.

Because eternity is not just in the expansive future,
eternity includes where He is now – IN this light moment with me and with you.