by Rev Douglas Brauner

Seeing the Life of Christ in Our Daily Battles

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.” 
2 Corinthians 4:8-10 English Standard Version

I don’t know who John Cameron Swayze was other than the fact that he was the spokes person for Timex watches. These commercials, many of them performed live, featured Timex watches being spun in water by a propeller, shaken and crushed by ice, and held on the knuckles of a cliff diver splashing into the ocean at 80 mph. After retrieving the watch, Swayze would then say, “It takes a licking and keeps on ticking.”

Deerwood Ranch Wild Horse Sanctuary, Wyoming

Those Timex watches had nothing on this tree in Wyoming. It has stood for years, exposed to the elements. Scorching summer heat, driving winds and relentless snow have not killed this tree.

It has taken a licking and keeps on standing.

Aren’t there times that we feel like this tree? Life can be brutal. I have often heard people say that they can’t take any more. Disease, disaster, and death have beat against them. Like this tree, you can see the effects of this battering in their lives.

Paul was not a stranger to pain. “Afflicted…perplexed…persecuted…struck down.” We live with the illusion that being in Christ means experiencing heaven on earth, yet it is here on this planet that we experience struggles.

Paul also experienced the mercy of God in his strife. He was not “crushed, driven to despair, forsaken, or destroyed.” He felt it an honor to carry the sufferings of Jesus in his body that the life of Jesus might be seen in him.

When I look at this tree, it doesn’t tell a story of death but of life. When people see our perseverance may they see the life of Jesus in us.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado