We get things into their proper perspective and proportion only so long as we fix our gaze upon eternity. This is the way to overcome if the last steep climb to the summit is very rough going. Now that we are reaching the peak of life's journey, we can have a better 'view' of the things which are unseen. We can appreciate the invisible values of eternity better from this perspective. Like Moses who 'endured as seeing Him Who is invisible', so long as we look at the things which are not seen, we shall overcome.
At this elevation we see how light the heaviest weight is. We have laboured all our lives long and have borne many responsibilities, carried many loads, endured innumerable reverses, retraced our steps oftentimes. Some of the burdens were of our own making; some, the malice of others; some, simply what accrued by being human. But most of those weights are no longer with us; the ones that are can be handled faithfully till the time comes to lay them down.
At this elevation, also, we see how short the requirement of endurance is. There were times when the tasks seemed never ceasing. In our prime they cascaded upon us in our daily labours, at home, and in the Lord's work. Sometimes we felt quite sure they were too much to be borne, but always the Lord gave strength to endure and pick ourselves up again. Now we have almost crossed the finishing line we can endure to the end.
We see that there is a relation between our experience now and our reward. The weight of glory is out of all proportion to the load it is a far more exceeding weight of glory than any weight we ever knew. It is a weight which, far from weighing heavily upon us, will elevate us. Let us endure what still has to be endured joyfully knowing that it can only enlarge the glory which will be given us. Still more wonderfully, the perspective of eternity is out of all proportion to the time of our trouble. The little time which remains to us can be faced the more faithfully since we know that the timelessness of eternity is near.
These things are the raw materials out of which our far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory is formed. Just as in Hebrews 11 we see the wide variety of situations in which faith may be exercised to please God -- the making of an ark, the offering of a sacrifice, the uttering of a prophecy, the choice of suffering affliction with the people of God rather than enjoying the pleasures of sin, the enduring of torture without accepting deliverance, being stoned, sawn asunder, tempted, wandering on mountains and in caves -- so each of us in our own positions, jobs, countries and centuries may turn each situation to account by faith and patient endurance. As we lie in hospital or hospice, far from scenes of public worship and apparent fruitfulness, our weight of glory is forged.