June 12, 2024 

Today's Reading: 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1

Daily Lectionary: Proverbs 10:1-23; Proverbs 11:1-12:28; John 14:1-17

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 2 Corinthians 4:16

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Christians don’t measure hurt differently than the world. Just time. Jesus is already raised from the dead and will bring us with Him into His presence. We are already tied to everlasting life. That doesn’t make today hurt less, but it puts the word “today” in perspective. Which matters when things hurt. Pain shortens time into the moment. All of eternity shrinks into the toe I just stubbed. There is no path forward from the relationship imploding in the moment. Pain makes the now seem so much larger than it actually is. Christ’s promise of resurrection stretches time back out. 

Today is still allowed to hurt. Jesus never promises a today that hurts less. But He does promise to be a God who will not allow you to hurt alone. He’ll hurt for you, too. He bore a cross that probably didn’t just tickle. But He did it to save you from the todays that hurt too much. So we do not lose heart. Our outer self wastes away. Things break in this world, us included. But our inner self won’t just renew after it’s all too much and we die. You are renewed today in the midst of the pain. In the midst of the decay. In the midst of everything that is wrong, daily, you are renewed in your Baptism. New Man emerges and arises to live before God in righteousness and purity forever. You are tied to the victory that stretches time back out today. So we look to that. The things that are unseen in the font. Forgiveness, life, and salvation. You are baptized. Today’s afflictions will disappear under the weight of the glory of the resurrection in the same way I can’t remember what I had eight years ago for lunch. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

O God, for our redemption You gave Your only-begotten Son to the death of the cross and by His glorious resurrection delivered us from the power of the enemy. Grant that all our sin may be drowned through daily repentance and that day by day we may arise to live before You in righteousness and purity forever; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

- Rev. Harrison Goodman is the content executive for Higher Things.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, Ky.

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