Chaplain’s Corner: Struck Down But Not Destroyed

As this year wraps up not many of us are sad to see it go. It has been a year none of us anticipated a year ago when we excitedly watched the ball drop on New Years Eve. COVID has cast a shadow on almost every part of our lives this year, from our health, to our relationships, to our finances to our politics.

Entering a new year we find ourselves unsure of how to feel. Glued to the news cycle we are continually warned that the worst is always still coming and that we are left to helplessly watch as the country and the economy circle the drain. On the other side of things we hear a giddy optimism that seems to promise that as soon as the clock strikes 2021 all of this will be over and we can go back to exactly the way things were. So which one is it? Which one do we pick?

Another way may in fact be neither! The apostle Paul had a way of navigating through the waters of fatalistic pessimism and naive optimism and presenting a third way that was both realistic and hopeful. In his correspondence with believers in Corinth he writes:

“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. (2 Cor .4:8-10)

Paul knew the pain and hardship of trying to hold together the early church in all of their squabbles and misunderstandings. He lived his life with the oppression of empire that was a continual threat to his life. But he also knew what it was to know Christ, and to know that there was nothing in this world that could separate him (or us) from that kind of hope and love.

As we enter 2021 let us take on the posture of Paul, preparing ourselves for the challenges yet to come, while refusing to be consumed by them. Let us look back at the ways 2020 made us stronger and continue forward as a community of faith that has known the love and hope of Christ, carrying that life in our bodies, bringing light into the darkness.