Beyond Short Sightedness

When I was a boy our family would make annual trips to Tennessee to visit my mother’s family. My grandparents farmed near a small town with a genuine town square, just like the one on the Andy Griffith show. A couple of times a week, they would go into town to do errands and a little shopping. My grandfather would join the other men down at the town square to visit, complain about the weather and just connect as a community.

The game of choice in the town square was checkers. I remember as a boy thinking how easy the game looked, and how I wanted to play with the old-timers. When I was finally invited into a game I was brimming with confidence. I captured a checker or two, and then a third. The older gent who was my opponent just kept talking and laughing with his friends, seemingly oblivious to how well I was doing. He would even give me a checker on purpose now and then.

Then suddenly he picked up a checker and hopped, skipped and jumped right across the board and yelled, “King Me!” And with that king, he proceeded to finish the game in short order.

That was the day, I learned about long-range vision.

Whether your life today is a bowl of cherries, or you’re living in the pits, it’s valuable to remember that today is just one piece in the larger game. Today’s losses are an investment in tomorrow’s victory. In Philippians 3, Paul talks about gains and losses in light of eternity. In Romans 5 he reminds us that “Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope”. And in 2 Corthians 4, after sharing a few stories about the hard times he has personally faced, he offers this amazing summary: “Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”

Wow! What is he saying? He’s saying that trouble and discomfort and fatigue are a big part of life. In the short term, they are painful and Satan will use those things to try to dis-courage us…to rob us of our courage.

“But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor 15:57)

“Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.” (2 Cor 2:14).

Thank God that Satan doesn’t have the last word. As one thoughtful writer observes; "No one minds losing a few checkers along the way if he knows he’s headed for King Territory.”