I have heard of other glories

Sometimes your own life, or the lives of people around you, goes a little like this:

The Long Defeat (click for a snippet)

by Sara Groves

i have joined the long defeat

that falling set in motion

and all my strength and energy

are raindrops in the ocean

so conditioned for the win

to share in victor's stories

but in the place of ambition's din

i have heard of other glories

and i pray for an idea

and a way i cannot see

it's too heavy to carry

and impossible to leave

i can't just fight when i think i'll win

that's the end of all belief

and nothing has provoked it more

than a possible defeat

chorus

we walk a while we sit and rest

we lay it on the altar

i won't pretend to know what's next

but what i have i've offered

...

it's too heavy to carry

and I will never leave

there's a way I cannot see

I don't know exactly what Sara Groves intended those 'other glories' to be, but to me it's faithfulness in the midst of suffering and difficulties. It's the people who are knocked down, but they're not out. The people who keep fighting, who keep demonstrating grace or who just keep hanging on, to the glory of God, when there doesn't seem to be much left that's worth fighting for. The people who press on when everything is disappointing. A little like this:

Treasure in Jars of Clay

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

...

16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4)