The Worst Day of the Year

Eastford Baptist Church
March 8, 2007

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

(2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

I can’t believe I missed it! It came and went and I didn’t even notice it. What did I miss you ask? The worst day of the year. When was the worst day of the year? January 22, 2007 – at least according to some “experts” who study such things. (experts = travel agents looking to sell mid-winter, Caribbean cruises) “Experts” have determined that a combination of the post-holiday blues; post-holiday bills; short cold days; long cold nights; tax bills; W-2’s that tell us just how much we got paid, only to realize how little we did with it, and abandoned New Year’s resolutions – all combined to make January 22 the worst day of this year. (Coincidentally it just happened to correspond with fantastic cut-rate deals with the Cruise Liners.) Now to be honest, I’m a little upset that somebody didn’t notify me that this was the worst day of the year. It came and went and I didn’t even know about it. Had I known, I could have indulged in an entire day of commiserating and complaining about how bad the day was and nobody would have faulted me for it! (Is retroactive depression a possibility?) Of course the prescription for the worst day of the year, at least according to the “experts,” was to get away from it all and book a cruise. But I’m not sure that would really solve the problem. Sooner or later the bill for the cruise would come due and we’d be apt to face “the 2nd worst day of the year.”
Everybody has bad days now and then. There are some days when the problems of life seem to get the best of us and we struggle just to make it through. There are lots of people in the Bible who faced difficult problems as well, but few suffered more than the Apostle Paul. In 2 Corinthians he tells us about some of the problems he faced. In chapter 1 verse 8 he writes, “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.” He tells about being beaten, imprisoned, stoned, scourged, left for dead, shipwrecked, adrift on the sea for two days, snake-bit, slandered, cold, poor and homeless (now those really are bad days) – but in each case, he endured and overcame. In chapter 4, verses 8&9 he sums it up by saying, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”
In the passage above Paul shares some insight of how he handled some of the worst days he faced:
1. Focus on the inward not the outward. Paul deals first with physical struggles that can cause bad days. “Though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day…” OK, let’s see a raise of hands: Who can relate to the outward physical body wasting away? Everyone can. If not yet, I’ll ask you again in a couple of years. Paul was able to endure his physical problems because he kept a proper perspective – the outward may waste away, but God renews our inner spirit with blessing after blessing. Our outward, physical bodies may fail, but our inward, our spirit is being renewed every day.
2. Focus on the eternal not the momentary. “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” When we focus on the momentary we tend to slip into a practice I call “expanded exaggeration.” It goes something like this. We face some kind of difficult situation and we say, “Everyone hates me!” Really? Everybody? “This stuff always happens to me!” Always? Every single time? When someone asks what’s wrong, we say, “Everything!” No, it can’t be everything. Something may be wrong, there may even be several things wrong. But everything is not wrong! When we make a mistake we say, “I can’t do anything right!” That’s not true – you can do some things right. The issue is perspective. Focusing on the momentary causes us to expand and exaggerate the difficulty of the problem. How much wiser to focus on the eternal. No matter how much you may feel like a loser – God values you! You may not think your life is worth anything – God thinks your life is worth His own life. Jesus gave his all because of your matchless value.
3. Focus on the unseen not the seen. “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” Many people live their lives never understanding the reality of reality. The stuff we see now is fleeting – it is temporary. It is the unseen – the eternal, the spiritual that is truly real – that is truly important. The stuff we see is all going to be gone one day. When we die, the toys we have gathered in our life will be lucky to bring even a single bid on e-bay. But that which is not seen with human eyes – our soul’s eternal destiny with the Lord - will make the toys and aspirations of this world seem petty and insignificant.
What’s the difference between your worst day and your best day? It’s a matter of perspective. Fix your eyes on the goodness found in Jesus and you’ll find yourself enjoying the best days of 2007.

Look to Jesus, and have a great day,
PT