Romans 8:18
“I consider that the sufferings of the present time are not worth comparing to the glory to be revealed to us.”
Some days I realize how silly it is to call my diabetic condition “suffering”. Compared to the experience of the desperately poor, exiles and refugees, abused and neglected children, laying off the donuts is no big deal. And at other times, it feels like a genuine hardship to moderate my portions at meals, to avoid certain foods that other people seem to enjoy without negative consequences, always having to calculate, to plan ahead, to think before every choice.
Is that the biggest hardship? Never to be spontaneous, carefree, unthinking? Welcome to childhood’s end! “The unexamined life is not worth living,” Socrates declared, and what I just described is not really being carefree, just careless. It is good to be without needless worries and anxieties, but not without personal accountability and consideration of our actions.
Back to the issue of suffering. Whatever the degree of suffering which we experience because of diabetes and its attendant cares, it is a “momentary light affliction” compared to the glory that awaits us. Lest I be accused of having a medieval mindset, in which all pleasure is suspect and heaven the only happiness we can expect, I hasten to add that this glory about to be revealed is not only that which awaits us in heaven in all its fullness and permanence. God also wants us to live lives of fulfillment here and now, to “have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).
And I would go further and say that the present suffering is nothing compared to the glory being revealed not just to us but also in us—a reflected glory to be sure, not anything we claim as our own, but the glory of Christ’s resurrection shining through us, a witness to the world that He has conquered sin and death. By our successful management of our diabetic self-care as a spiritual discipline, we can be a witness to Christ’s power to transform our lives.
Be assured of my continued prayers for your health and happiness.
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