So we do not lose heart.

Though our outer self

          is wasting away,

our inner self is being

   renewed day by day.

For this light momentary

                   affliction

is preparing for us

an eternal weight of glory

   beyond all comparison,

as we look not

to the things that are seen

but to the things

            that are unseen.

For the things that are seen

        are transient,

but the things that are unseen

       are eternal.

         2 Corinthians 4. 16-18

(Everyone struggles

             with something.

The difference as believers

is not if,

not what happens,

  but how we respond to it.

So much more is going on

behind the scenes,

beyond our myopic vision,

always comprehensive

  in His steadfast love.

This affliction or suffering,

uncomfortable, inconvenient,

painful physically

           or otherwise,

is neither random nor punitive,

but what God uses

          and redeems

to prepare us,

swapping the seen

            for the unseen.

We can endure anything

  --even grow in it --

as long as we have hope

  --that on which,

       that on Whom

we can stake our lives.)

O LORD,

There are things we

     cannot comprehend.

Help us to trust You

                in them,

       through them,

not just to an outcome

but step by step

    on the journey itself.

Every day, every step

  manifests a story of

       Your faithfulness.

For we walk by faith

    not by sight,

through the seen

         and the unseen.