Looking at the Bright Side

“ Looking at the Bright Side”  2 Corinthians 3:16

 

   I remember telling my mother about things that were going on, and of course I painted a very dim picture. This has to happen if that which is desired is going to happen, and of course the chances for that to happen are not good.  I could give a very bleak picture.  Then she said ,” well you could look on the bright side!”  That stopped me in my tracks!  I guess I had painted a picture of bleakness because I needed encouragement, and she gave it .

 

   Friday morning I read about a suicide of a young fashion designer who jumped off the GW Bridge in New York last Wednesday . She was only 22 years old.  In a suicide note she listed five girls she did not want at her funeral.  She felt she was the subject of gossip. She had attempted suicide before.

 

    In Corinth the Apostle Paul had gone to great effort to help the people there.  They were letting the greek culture infiltrate the community of faith.  Remember this was a culture that valued beautiful words, beautiful people, and sports.  They also had some very wise philosophers such as Aristotle.  A man had to be disciplined in I Corinthians and now Paul writes back to assure them that this was the right action to reclaim the man.  2:6 “ Sufficient to such a man is this punishment..” Now he said they “ ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.” “ I beseech you that you would confirm your love toward him.”2:8  The Apostle had seen the bright side that this situation could be remedied.  He did not let the darkness of the situation overwhelm him.

 

    We had some good rain this week.  The clouds were dark. The wind blew and it rained.  But then the sun came out.  Behind every difficulty and problem there is hope.  In 2 Cor. 3 we hear of such hard and difficult words that give no hope:  “ the service of death in letters having been graven in stone” vs 7  “ their thoughts were hardened..”  vs. 14  “ a veil upon their heart”  or as the English reads in the translations “ but their minds were blinded” .

 

     There does not seem to be any possibility of change .  There in those words there is a sense of loss of hope.  That usually leads to depression and in some people, suicide as we have shared.  In the military we had a suicide intervention program that relied on the acronym CPR.  When talking with someone we trying to see how serious they were about actually killing themselves. We would ask them if they had a C= current plan to kill themselves.  P= prior attempts made them a greater risk for suicide completion and R which I thought was very very important was R= resources.  Who do you have to talk to?  What resources are there to help you in your depression and stress?

 

   Moses had to wear a veil when he came down from the mount after talking with God face to face.  Exodus 34 tells us .  The brightness would have been too much for the people to see.  In the same way we are told in 2 Corinthians using that as an example in 3:16 that “ when it ( the heart) shall be turned to the Lord (literally ) , is taken away the veil” and a person has liberty in the Spirit of the Lord.    There is hope for change.  There is never final total despair no matter how bad we may feel or how bad we may feel about someone else ever changing. 

 

   The veil of sin is removed. “ The veil is done away in Christ”  vs. 14 People who have truly believed are not indifferent to Christ or His Church. They are seeing for the first time perhaps the true light.  That is the light of Christ.  That is looking at the bright side.  That gives us much hope as we go on our journey to Easter this week through the Cross. We do not avoid it.  We too are called to take it up daily .  Jesus is leading the way.  Will we follow the world and the culture or will we follow Jesus?