When we follow Christ and suffer persecution, insults, and hardships with him, we are not among the world’s losers.  We are the prize-winner.  Beatitude is ours!  But that still leaves weakness.

Hardship, insult, persecution, and most especially the wretched sin that besets us are not our final state.  Beauty and love, in life with the Lord, are our final state.  They are our home.  But we do not get home by ourselves.  Only God has the wisdom and the power to get us there.  And so we have to wait for him, even for the removal of those sins that we would so dearly love to be rid of, and would also so dearly love to keep.

And that is why disciples can be content even with weakness, and why we can be patient even with our own sins.  God’s grace is sufficient for each of us, not just where insults and hardships are concerned, but even when it comes to our sins.  If only we do not let go of our waiting for him with trust, with peace and contentment in him, he will rid us of our sins in his own time.  He will get us home.
Excerpt from Eleonare Stump