sometimes, learning is fun

this New Testament class I am in right now is, well, hard - but kind of amazing. sometimes I'm a little baffled that this is the stuff I am getting credit to learn, since it seems like stuff I should be learning anyway. its a little bit like a really really intense Bible study with a really freaking smart leader. I came back across this in studying for my midterm (which was hard. if you wondered.) and wanted to share it, because its pretty good news. Paul was a pretty sweet guy.

"...We do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness,"made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
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.
...
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
2 Corinthians 4

sometimes even in texts we may have read millions of times, new and beautiful truths reveal themselves and bring us encouragement! so while I might feel hard pressed on every side, struck down, perplexed, persecuted - Paul reminds me (and the church in Corinth) that I am not crushed, not in despair, not abandoned, not destroyed - because of the truth of the death of Christ.
lately, I've been forgetting that, and having a pretty big pity party for my "suffering"... but today I am reminded of the truth.
and it's a pretty good day.