Weight of Glory

It is amazing what people will endure if they think it’s worth it.  Ballerinas’ feet bleed, athletes’ muscles scream, my nephew hurls himself into a bruising, muddy rugby field. It took Michelangelo two years to create his sculpture of David, working in the rain, snatching sleep with his boots still on, rarely eating. Why do people do it? In their mind’s eye, they see the goal.

 As for us who follow Christ, we can endure much when we see the weight of glory ahead.  

Before my husband died, he tweeted Father Raniero Cantamelessa,

“A new standard of measurement has been introduced that makes crosses and trials seem light and momentary.”

What is this new standard?  Nothing less than the weight of glory. Paul says,

Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us a weight of glory that outweighs them all. (2 Cor 4:17)

 Imagine an old-fashioned pair of weighing scales – on the one side, our troubles, on the other side eternal glory. Compared to the weight of glory, our troubles are light as the feather that I saw blowing in the wind today.

The Hebrew word for glory is “kabod” which also means “weight”. God’s presence brings a weight that for Paul, made all else seem light. Extraordinary from someone who’d been through betrayals, beatings and prison.

Does that mean that the grief I have experienced, the trouble you experience is unimportant? Not to God. The one who weeps with us and died for us cares more than we know.  The key is grasping that God’s glory and his love are inseparable. That’s why when Moses asked to see God’s glory, God showed him his goodness. That’s why the God of glory comforts and heals us.

But how can our troubles “achieve” this glory?  Paul continues,

“Provided that we keep our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen.” 

The scales tip when we look to God.

Lord, may your Spirit open the eyes of our hearts to the weight of your glory.