Everything in Life is Temporary-by Heidi McLaughlin
Posted: September 30, 2018
A place I worked in for twenty-one years is being torn and shredded until it is non-existent. Gone. The office and people to which I dedicated those years have gone on with their lives, and so have I. It’s hard to accept that this successful and fulfilling era of my life was only temporary. If you don’t agree that everything in life is temporary, just pull out an old photo album.
This year I’ve started almost every day saying: “Today is the very best day I’m going to have.” It doesn’t always turn out that way, but if I have dedicated that day to God, then everything happened the way it was designed to unfold. Again, if you’re not sure today is your very best day, look at a photo of yourself 15 years ago, and you’ll probably agree: “Hey today is pretty good!”
Today is the very best day I’m going to have.
Suffering and pain is part of this fallen world, but everything in life is temporary. Like a “night season.” But while we are in the midst of the dark and lonely night seasons they feel like they will go on forever. We have more questions than answers and nothing is changing. It’s these night seasons where God is preparing us for greatness and where He does His most magnificent work. Look at some of these examples:
- David defeated Goliath and was to be King but before he was crowned, he spent 16 years running from Saul who was out to kill him.
- Ruth lost her husband at an early age. Then she remarried and had a son who is in the lineage of Jesus Christ.
- Joseph, thrown in a pit, in a jail and ended in a palace and second in command to the King.
Our stories don’t end in the night. The night is temporary. The loneliness is temporary. The grief is temporary. It’s a season, not a life sentence.
Grief is temporary; it’s not a life sentence.
The Bible tells us: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16 NIV).
Let me encourage you not to lose heart but to see everything as temporary. Remind yourself that the night turns into morning, seasons come and go. There are deaths and then births. Life seasons are always moving, always changing. Nothing lasts forever.
“Weeping may go on all night, but in the morning there is joy” (Psalm 30:5)
In the painful times this truth saved my soul. It gave me hope to know that one day my pain would end and God would help me to feel joy once again. But let me be clear, my pain did not feel temporary, but it did give me hope for better days. My soul longed for a new morning. For renewed Joy. I am a joyful person and yet I felt like I was dead inside.
If today is a good day, stop and thank God for the beauty, people and goodness in your life. If today is a day of suffering, be assured that one day this will pass and joy will return.
“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Cor. 4:17 NIV).
Today, if you’re in a place of suffering, tell yourself, “This pain is temporary and God is working it our for my good.” Even though it doesn’t feel like it, stop and thank God for at least three good things.
