A Diminished Thing
Judy Moseman on 2 Corinthians 4
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.
2 Cor 4:16-18
After retiring from full-time work at Bethel, I began to experience hearing loss which has progressed to a severe diminishment. Hearing aids are helpful, but nothing can fully restore the precious gift of hearing.
I was helped by a Philip Yancey devotional referencing Dr. Vernon Grounds, former president of Denver Seminary. As he aged, Grounds asked God to help him “make the most of a diminished thing.” I am not aware of what Dr. Grounds’ life/health concerns were at that time, but the thought he took from the Robert Frost poem, “The Oven Bird,” also became my prayer as I dealt with the progressive loss of my hearing.
The cause unknown, the reality of my loss has given me many opportunities to ponder — Was I grateful for my hearing when I had it? Am I grateful now for the many other God-given gifts I enjoy? What opportunities to encourage and minister to others has God offered me in spite of the exhausting effort to hear them? Do I listen carefully to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and to what God reveals to me during worship and via his written Word? Do I faithfully respond?
Perhaps you, too, are experiencing the harsh reality of “a diminished thing” — mobility, macular degeneration, memory loss, taste or smell, balance? Perhaps the loss of a relationship from a misunderstanding, betrayal or death, loss of a job or status, of compassion, of patience? There are many types of diminishment. So we look to the Lord, the source of all wholeness and well-being, and pay attention to what spiritually forming and renewing work he continues to do in us daily. And, above all else we can always hear his voice.
Prayer
Help us, O Lord, to be listening for your voice, trusting your perspective on our lives, knowing that you are doing your good work in us always, by your grace and for your glory. Amen.
Judy Moseman C ‘65 served as Bethel Education Department faculty member, Director of Alumni and Parent Services, Vice President for Student Life, and Director of Bethel’s National Prayer Initiative.