Daily Journal: 24 September

Do Not Fade Away

“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”

Elbert Hubbard first wrote in Literary Digest, 1909. "A genius is a man who takes the lemons that Fate hands him and starts a lemonade-stand with them." It was popularised by Dale Carnegie in a book published in 1948. However, in 1940, Clarence Edwin Flynn’s poem, “The Optimist” was published in The Rotarian:

Life handed him a lemon,

As Life sometimes will do.

His friends looked on in pity,

Assuming he was through.

They came upon him later,

Reclining in the shade

In calm contentment, drinking

A glass of lemonade.

Reflecting on other people’s journey through life can bring insights for the way we choose to live ours. Life itself is fragile and temporary. Outwardly, life is corruptible and wastes away. But because of what we believe inwardly, we do not fade away. We do not allow our circumstances to define us. We do not allow what others say to define us.

Inwardly, we can grow stronger and be built up to last.

While it’s easy to assume that what we see is all that we rely on to assess life, those who know Christ recognise that, while outwardly things can look bad, inwardly we carry a hope that is beyond the reality of anything that can be seen. We endure trouble with hope because we put our faith and trust in the God of a greater, and everlasting, reality.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (GWT)

That is why we are not discouraged. Though outwardly we are wearing out, inwardly we are renewed day by day. Our suffering is light and temporary and is producing for us an eternal glory that is greater than anything we can imagine. We don’t look for things that can be seen but for things that can’t be seen. Things that can be seen are only temporary. But things that can’t be seen last forever.

When we allow our spirit to receive this truth, we are not defined by fecklessness, successes and praises, or failures and shame. We are comforted in troubles. We know the world to come will be under God’s rule of love and righteousness. So, we choose to fix our eyes on those things that are unseen now, but will be revealed fully in the world to come.

Just because something is unseen does not make it unreal.

Learning the reality and importance of spiritual sight, we recognise spiritual life is everlasting. For this reason, we frame the circumstances of this life on earth with an everlasting perspective. Troubles are momentary when compared to an everlasting life. Our troubles do not define our identity. Because of the hope we carry through our troubles, we are achieving an unquantifiable, everlasting glory.