*_🍞Our Daily Bread🍞 03-10-2021_*
*The Dwindles*
By: *Adam Holz*
_It started with a tickle in my throat. Uh oh, I thought. That tickle turned out to be influenza. And that was just the beginning of bronchial affliction. Influenza morphed into whooping cough—yes, that whooping cough—and that turned into pneumonia._
_Eight weeks of torso-wracking coughing—it's not called whooping cough for nothing—has left me humbled. I don't think of myself as old. But I'm old enough to start thinking about heading in that direction. A member of my small group at church has a funny name for the health issues that assail us as we age: "the dwindles." But there's nothing funny about dwindling's work "in action."_
_In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul too wrote—in his own way—about "the dwindles." That chapter chronicles the persecution he and his team endured. Fulfilling his mission had taken a heavy toll: "Outwardly we are wasting away," he admitted. But even as his body failed—from age, persecution, and harsh conditions—Paul held tightly to his sustaining hope: "Inwardly we are being renewed day by day" (v. 16). These "light and momentary troubles," he insisted, can't compare to what awaits: "an eternal glory that far outweighs them all" (v. 17)._
_Even as I write tonight, the dwindles claw insistently at my chest. But I know that in my life and that of anyone who clings to Christ, they'll not have the last word._
```Reflect & Pray```
_What "dwindles" are affecting you or someone you love right now? What can help you maintain your faith and hope during seasons of struggle or discouragement with health issues?_
*_Father, even as our bodies "waste away," help me to see those physical struggles through the lens of our hope in Jesus and the glory He promises._*
*_Our Daily Bread_*