As Christians, we are fighting a war. Yes, the war has already been won, but we still fight every day. Back in the states, my day to day didn’t life didn’t feel like much of a war. Here in Greece, every day at 4:00 I enter the thick of the battle. At midnight, I come home tired and heavy hearted. In complete honesty, I sometimes feel defeated and drained of all peace. It doesn’t always feel like ‘the good fight’. However, I am not defeated because this war has already been won. The next morning I get up and prepare again for the day’s battle. I never know what that day’s fight will hold. So I prepare for everything. I prepare by running into the arms of Jesus every day.
It’s easy to work towards a goal with an end in sight. But, there’s no end in sight to the refugee crisis. Just this week there was a hurricane in Mexico and an earthquake in Afghanistan. There will always be another crisis. There will always be another natural disaster. There will always be people who need help. So, when does it end? We do we stop fighting? When the war is over. The war is won, but it’s not over.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Romans 8:19-25
All of creation groans for God. This is physically manifested in the natural disasters and crises that plague us. These things will never end until God comes back. Until his glory is manifested here on earth. We wait with hope and patience. Until then, we fight. We love. We serve. And we pursue.
