2 Peter 3:11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives.

As often happens, the English and the Japanese divide the sentences differently, which makes this verse a bit awkward to quote by itself in English, but the point is clear enough. That is, the physical is temporal, and we had better treat it that way. The vast majority of people are quite wrapped up in the physical, whether it’s their own bodies or the things they possess, but that leaves us open to all sorts of temptation that really is unnecessary. That’s not to say that we aren’t accountable for the physical, because we are. However, the physical is merely a training ground for the eternal, and the better we understand that the more peace we will have with the inevitable glitches of life. God could have created us as purely spiritual beings, without bothering with the physical universe, but He didn’t choose to do that. We certainly can’t know everything about His motives and reasons for things, so all of this is training in learning to trust Him. In Hebrews 5:8 it says that even Jesus “learned obedience from what he suffered.” In taking on human flesh, disobedience to the Father became possible for Him in a way that was not possible before, and He learned to choose obedience just as we need to do. The ultimate example of that is in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He prayed, “Not my will, but Yours be done.” (Luke 22:42) We will not have the strength to make that choice ourselves as long as we are hanging onto the material. I’m reminded of the joke about someone who had lived such a good life that he was allowed to take his gold with him to heaven. On his arrival he told someone, who responded, “You brought paving material?!” Everything is going to be reduced to its constituent atoms, neutrinos, quarks, or bosons, and rearranged, if at all, however the Father sees fit. (That, by the way, is why resurrection is no problem for God.) The better we understand that, the more we will be focused on pleasing Him, rather than on hanging onto anything physical.

This is an awareness that I have come to slowly myself. That’s one of the benefits of physical age! I certainly can’t say I’m fully consistent in it, so I have plenty of room to grow, and I must not look down on those who are almost totally focused on the physical. Rather, I am to speak the truth to them in love, exercising toward them the patience God has shown toward me. As Paul said in verse 15 here, God’s patience means salvation, and I am called to be an instrument of that salvation for as many as possible.

Father, thank You for my recent bout with shingles, and for my current difficulties with my arm, to grow me in the perspective You have been speaking to me just now. Help me realize that the time is short for bringing anyone to Christ, so that I may make and keep that as my first priority. Thank You for each opportunity You give me to witness to others, and for the delightful report of Your doctor-confounding grace that came in just yesterday. Help me keep my eyes on Jesus at all times, so that I may be fully available and obedient to You for however You want to use me, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!