And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. ––Ephesians 1:13-14
A penny on the track
We ran and get it back
The driver on the train
Whose soul’s in so much pain
Says love will flatten
But it won’t crack
The coin won’t crack
––“In a Life,” U2*
We all either did it or thought of doing it: placed a penny on a railroad track and waited around to see what it looked like after the train went by. Where I grew up in the San Joaquin Valley of California—known as the Fruit Basket of America—there were lots of trains carrying produce to market. I remember the first time I ever did the penny test—a friend had told me that the train would squish the penny and make it nearly unrecognizable. I didn’t believe him—until I tried it. Wow. Yeah, the results were pretty cool.
Life is the train sometimes, and we are the penny: Just sitting there minding our own business when we get slammed down and flattened out. Like the train driver in the U2 song above, typically the coin flattens, but doesn’t crack. The world does that to all of us, doesn’t it? We get run over at times, cut down by unexpected events, tragedies, and setbacks. And we get back up—bruised, battered, flattened.
Oh, there’s no doubt about it: life will flatten you because we live in a fallen world and the god of this age does not have your best interests in mind. However, when we are in Christ, the flattening process looks a little different. The train still comes—the world, the flesh, and the devil don’t simply go away when we receive Jesus—but the flattening has a different outcome. Here’s what today’s verse reveals about this process: When we are in Christ, we are marked by a seal, the Holy Spirit, “who is a deposit, guaranteeing our inheritance” in His kingdom.
As God’s man, the pressure and heat of life pressing down on you reveals what is inside: God’s Holy Spirit. When you find life’s trains bearing down, remember who you are and what’s inside you: the more life flattens you, the more the seal of the Holy Spirit is visible.
Father, thank You for the seal of the Holy Spirit, that allows me to survive the ‘trains’ that bear down on me in this life. In good times and bad, allow me to bear Your image as a witness to others.
* “In a Life” by U2 was written by Bono, Adam Clayton, The Edge & Larry Mullen Jr.. In a Life. U2
