For our light, momentary affliction (this slight distress of the passing hour) is ever more and more abundantly preparing and producing and achieving for us an everlasting weight of glory [beyond all measure, excessively surpassing all comparisons and all calculations, a vast and transcendent glory and blessedness never to cease!]-2 Corinthians 4:17


A "light", "momentary affliction" coming from a man like Paul is kinda funny to me.  Just read 2 Cor. 11....


²⁴Five times I received from [the hands of] the Jews forty [lashes all] but one;
    ²⁵Three times I have been beaten with rods; once I was stoned. Three times I have been aboard a ship wrecked at sea; a [whole] night and a day I have spent [adrift] on the deep;
    ²⁶Many times on journeys, [exposed to] perils from rivers, perils from bandits, perils from [my own] nation, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the desert places, perils in the sea, perils from those posing as believers [but destitute of Christian knowledge and piety];
    ²⁷In toil and hardship, watching often [through sleepless nights], in hunger and thirst, frequently driven to fasting by want, in cold and exposure and lack of clothing.
    ²⁸And besides those things that are without, there is the daily [inescapable pressure] of my care and anxiety for all the churches!

So...how does a man get to the point that stoning is but a "light" affliction??  How do we come to the point that we can say the same??

melanie