Thomas J Parlette
“Good Things Come to Those Who Wait-Hope”
2nd Corinthians 4:13-5:1
6/6/21
What is your favorite toy of all time? Evert Christmas, toy companies push out their latest and greatest toy, but most of those toys prove to be only fads. They sell well one year, then disappear the next. But some toys remain popular year after year, or even decade after decade. Journalist Allie Townsend published an article in Time Magazine on the most influential toys from the 1920’s to the 2000’s See if you remember any of these:
The Radio Flyer wagon was the most influential toy of the 1920’s – anybody remember those? Anybody still have one?
The Etch-A-Sketch and the Slip-N-Slide were popular in the 1960’s, and remain popular even today.
The 1970’s brought us the Nerf Ball, the Weebles, and Paddington Bear – all staples in the household where I grew up.
Cabbage Patch Kids were the craze of the 1980’s. The 90’s brought us the Super-Soaker water gun. And the 2000’s brought us the Bratz Dolls, the Mindflex headset, and Zhu Zhu robotic hamsters.(1)
I’m sure it’s hard for toy designers to know which toy is going to be a one hit wonder, and which one will be played with, passed down to younger siblings, remembered with fondness, or even coveted by antiques collectors someday.
I would bet the inventor of the Weebles never expected his little egg-shaped dolls would be as popular as they are. One reason they sold so well was their advertising song, “Weebles wobble, but they won’t fall down.” Remember that little jingle? Don’t worry, it will be stuck in your head for the rest of the day.
My youngest sister had lots of Weebles and all the accessories that went with them. She was about 5 or 6 at the time, and I was 11 or 12. So, being the typical older brother that I am, I did my best to test the veracity of that advertising jingle. I did my best to get my sisters Weebles to go down and stay down – but it was true, they would wobble, but they wouldn’t fall down. They always popped back up again. They had weights in the bottom that made sure they would never really fall down. At least not permanently.
After hearing what Paul says today, you might even say that Weebles actually have a Biblical basis. Paul writes: “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, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” To paraphrase – we may wobble, but we don’t fall down.
We usually hear this passage at funeral services, I know I often turn to this piece of scripture. Paul’s contrast of our outer nature and inner nature and focus on things eternal that cannot be seen is valuable and I think comforting to hear at memorials. But this passage is not exclusive to funerals. Paul’s words are valuable in the course of our daily lives as well.
Paul knew what it was like to have status and success – before he was a follower of Jesus, he had certainly had his fair share. But Paul also knew what it was like to suffer hardships, physical abuse and even prison. Life can knock you down sometimes. But like the good old weebles, if you depend on the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ, you may wobble, but you won’t fall down.
So, first, Paul says don’t allow discouragement to defeat you when hardships and troubles come – “we do not lose heart…” Don’t give up, hang in there and give God a chance to help you through. Wait on the Lord, as Psalm 130 said.
David Langerfeld in “The Daily Encourager” devotional suggests a mental exercise that helps us see even dire situations in a new light. He says, “Imagine that I dump 10,000 plastic eggs in your back yard. I assure you that inside one of those hollow eggs is a check for $1 million dollars with your name on it. Would you get discouraged if you opened the first 100 eggs without finding the check? How about the first 1000 eggs? Of course not! You would just keep opening those eggs, just waiting for that moment when you find the check.”
Think about Paul’s life. He was beaten, stoned, imprisoned, shipwrecked, starved, and rejected. And yet Paul said that his sufferings were nothing compared to the glory that would come. As he says in today’s lesson: 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, since what is seen in temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
“In other words,” says Langerfeld, “Paul had opened a lot of empty eggs, but he never gave up or got discouraged. He believed that something great was in his future – God’s glory revealed in him. Perhaps it feels to you as if your life has been nothing but empty eggs. You’ve already opened 9,000 of them and you’re not sure you’ve got the will to go on. Let me encourage you today. Don’t give up.”(2) Listen to Paul – we do not lose heart.
The second piece of advice from Paul is to focus on the tasks at hand. Wise people learn to let go of both their regrets about the past and their anxieties about the future, and to concentrate on those necessary things that must be done today.
It’s too late to do anything about the past. And who knows what tomorrow will bring? Besides, tomorrow will be determined at least in part by what we do today. So, shut the door on the past and leave the future to God, and make today a purposeful and productive one. Do not lose heart. Focus on the tasks at hand.
Author Patsy Clairmont tells of a conversation she had once with a young Marine. He was returning from serving a year and a half in Operation Desert Storm in Kuwait. Clairmont commented that it must have been difficult to serve overseas while missing his family back home.
The young Marine said, “Oh no Ma’am. We were taught never to think of what might never be, but to be fully available right where we are.”(3)
Do not lose heart and focus at the tasks at hand – be fully available in the here and now, where ever you are.
The final point from Paul is to wait and trust in God. Here, the words of the Psalmist help to make Paul’s point. The over-arching theme of Psalm 130 is waiting…
“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope:
My soul waits for the Lord.”
Walter Brueggeman points out that the word translated in Psalm 130 as “wait” is often translated elsewhere as “hope” – as in the expectant waiting of a child at Christmas time. Psalm 130 is about wait-hope. It is an act of patience to be on the receiving end of gifts that we are sure to be given.(4) That is the reason Paul says, “We do not lose heart.” Both Paul and the Psalmist know that good things come to those who wait-hope.
I remember when I was a kid, our family used to take long car trips. And of course, my sisters and I would inevitably ask that age old backseat question – “Are we there yet?”
Now, in my family there was a distinct three- part progression to this exchange. The first answer we’d hear was “20 minutes.” Didn’t matter where we were going or how far it was. The first answer to “Are we there yet” was always “20 minutes.”
Well after a few more rounds of “Are we there yet” – we’d get the idea that the answer wasn’t changing – so we changed the question. “How much longer? Or How much farther?”
The second answer we’d get was always, “Every turn of the wheel brings us closer.”
Our backseat patience would quickly deteriorate from there into some frustrated version of “When are we going to get there?” Which would prompt the third and final response from my parents – who seemed to enjoy these exchanges much more than my sisters and I – the classic, “Good things come to those who wait.”
That’s as far as we ever took it – we knew the backseat had been defeated once again. Press any further and there would be yelling, then threats and finally no ice cream for a month. It seems Paul and the Psalmist would agree with my parents Front Seat strategy – do not lose heart, focus on the present and wait-hope for the Lord to act.
That’s what we do when we gather at the table. We gather to receive the gifts that God would give. It is freely given, there is enough for all. Good things come to those who wait-hope.
May God be praised. Amen.
1. Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXVII, No. 2, p30.
2. Ibid… p31.
3. Ibid… p32
4. Walter Brueggemann, “The Collected Sermons of Walter Brueggemann, Vol. 3”, Westminster John Knox Press, 2020, p166.
