03122023 A Little Longer

Dear Missionary Lady 

Greetings in the name of the Eternal God. We humans are finite and so time-centered, but God is beyond all time. There is something stabilizing in the knowledge that God transcends the limitations that we know.

I have a note posted on the edge of my computer at work. It reads, “Just a little longer.” One day this week my supervisor was at my desk discussing an issue. She pointed to my note and made a comment about it. She related it to an exercise class she had been part of, in which the instructor would challenge (or encourage) the participants by saying, “Anyone can do one more minute.”

Because of the way my supervisor moved the conversation along, unfortunately I did not have the opportunity to tell her that her interpretation was not the primary intended message of my note. Actually, if I am just thinking about my physical limitations and being able to remain at work all day, I have another note that is more applicable: “Go home if you need to.”

“Just a little longer” isn’t primarily about hanging on for another hour; it is a reminder about the temporal nature of this life. This life has good times and bad times. The bad times can get very challenging. But no matter how bad the bad times are, they are temporal. There is a day coming when there will be nothing but good days, and the goodness of those days will exceed anything we can imagine.

If, instead of a short saying, I had written Bible verses to communicate this thought, they would be II Corinthians 4:17-18. “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Also Romans 8:18. “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Anything we go through on this earth, no matter how hard, is limited to the brief time of our earthly existence. Beyond that, the scope of the difficulty is nothing compared with the scope of the glory that will be in heaven.

So when life is challenging, we can remember that it is just temporal. It is limited to the time that we sojourn here in this land that is not our real home. This journey will soon be over, and we will rejoice eternally in the land that Abraham also looked for – the “city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10).

It is a comfort to remember that we pilgrims, not belonging here, but just passing through on our way to our eternal home. The amount of time until each of us reaches that final home will vary (unless Jesus comes back very soon). We don’t know the exact length of time, but we do know that in perspective, it is “just a little longer.”

May God give you wisdom and strength to make the most of the days He gives you, and may He grant you special grace for the days that are more difficult. God bless.

Love in Christ,

Peggy Holt

member at Open Door Baptist Church in Lebanon, PA