Struck Down But Not Destroyed

... pressed but not crushed...

... persecuted, not abandoned...

(Cue nostalgic remembrances of this decades earliest contemporary Christian melodies.)

Well, okay, Link was, technically, abandoned. But, luckily, he is blessed beyond the curse. And the promise still endures. (This is me taking the lyric's application to this situation too far).

Turns out it doesn't even matter that I didn't get the e-mail (thanks to Sarah's brilliant investigative work I now know it was from Lori Klopp, who sends approximately 1,000 more e-mails per day than Rosemary Barra) and it is of no consequence to me if Bike Jail does or does not exist. Because, you see, as I walked to history yesterday and Noelle and I were chatting about the class that I am not going to end up taking with her, she exclaimed, "is that Link?!"

Indeed it is.

A syllabus day miracle! ... resulting from my abandonment of Link last December. I guess I just hallucinated the part when I got him from outside of the history building and brought him back to the stair rail outside. I place full blame on finals week. It worked out for the two of us, though.

Yes, yes, Lord, Amen.

This whole thing made me want to go look up the scripture that this song is based on. So I did. And here it is:

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

(2 Corinthians 4:7-12)

And I got to thinking, I feel like I'm carrying around death in this mortal body much more so than I feel life-giving most of the time. This is not only a problem because physically speaking I'm supposedly at my prime, I just also feel like probably I should be able to gather my energy and get happy with my work because God has given me every reason to be joyful when He made a way for my salvation through Jesus.

But the truth is, feeling not at my prime is not a problem altogether. I shouldn't shake it off and muster up my strength and keep on keepin' on. Because feeling not all together is half way to knowing the One who puts stuff together. There is no escaping that death is at work in my mortal body, even at this ripe old age of 21. Oh, but life is at work in me, too. And Jesus is working precisely because I have the need for him to. It's no excuse to go around continuing to feel lazy or uninspired, but it is hands down an opportunity for God to work.

I just have to ask for Him to. Feeling mortal just isn't the end of the story, or Jesus's would've ended at Christmas. So as we work our way towards Easter, I'll be praying that God would reveal life in this mortal body.

You know, put a little pep in this step.

Put a little squeal in Link's wheel.

(not only a below average phrase that will never catch on, but also I assure you that having lived outside through the Virginia Blizzard of '09, Link has plenty of squeal. That last picture is of him around the time I left him. Ha!)