Well Done, Corinn

The Trinitarian God of the Bible is the most basic and majestic Being in the universe. He is basic in that He is foundational to everything that exists. From Him, and through Him are all things. The laws of physics and reason exist, because He is. He is majestic in that He is far beyond the comprehension of any created being, whether angels or human beings. His ways are unsearchable and inscrutable. He is in the heavens, and He does all that He pleases according to the council of His will. He does all things for the glory of His name. He is loving and He is just. He is holy and He is merciful. He is sovereign over all things in life and death, and there’s no maverick molecule in the universe.

He is also a relational God. Between the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit exists Tri-unity, a love that cannot be described in anthropomorphic terms. To showcase that love, and His other attributes, God sent mankind into the world. We were created to draw and drink from Him. But we forsook His benefits and sought to quench our thirst from shallow, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. Yet, in order to display His grace and mercy, the Father sends Jesus Christ into the world to save a people for Himself, through the life-giving work of the Holy Spirit. Everyone who recognises their abject poverty, and puts their trust in Jesus Christ as their Saviour and God, are given the gift of God Himself. Jesus is the living water. He satisfies the souls’ deepest thirsts.

Corinn Linkowski recognised that a life without a redeemed relationship with God is meaningless, and trusted in the saving work of Jesus Christ. She loves and serves Him to this day and forever more. I only had the privilege of knowing Corinn over the past year, although I had met her in January of 2017 when I started attending Bethany Baptist Church in Grand Blanc, Michigan. Corinn lived her earthly looking forward to a city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. The insights she would share at our Young Adult Bible Study showed her high view of God’s Word. One of my favourite memories of her is reciting Phil 4:4-9 together after a Monday night Bible Study. Corinn was smart, yet humble and teachable; beautiful, yet modest; dauntless, yet kind. She was prayerful. She lived life Coram Deo, as if in the presence of God. She often reminded me of Ruthie, my little sister, who genuinely smiled with her eyes and teeth. Corinn also had a magnanimous laughter. She had just begun to appreciate puns too. She loved and cared for my brother Zac Guir. He often told me how powerfully he was drawn to her spiritual maturity and Christ-likeness. 

There was genuineness about Corinn; it was obvious that she had been transformed by the all powerful God of the universe. There was also brokenness about her; it was obvious that she had met with Him in a profound and personal way. This genuineness and brokenness manifested in the way she sang praises to God - it was priceless, one of a kind. I soon gathered that she had lost a dear friend, Adrian Campbell in a fatal vehicular accident in October 2016. In her testimony, Corinn identified how the darkest times following Adrian’s death drew her closer to God and gave her the desire to root herself deeply in the Word of God. She tasted the goodness of God in that tragedy and was a comfort to Adrian’s family, especially his mother Shawna, till she was taken home in a similar manner last week. Over the last week, I heard many a story of Corinn’s loving, powerful witnessing of Jesus in the lives of people she interacted with everyday. All useful children of God are like mosaics. They are stained glass windows moulded from all the shattered glass, smashed and patched back together, to show the all surpassing light that shines through them truly belongs to God and not to us. 

I will miss Corinn Linkowski, a sister from another mother. But her life inspires me to be lovingly bold about my proclamation of the gospel. She had desires for a future family, and was devoted to serving God in the hardest places, across the nations. She was called home at 18 - well before her Godly ambitions were fulfilled, but she lived an abundant life. Corinn can join with the apostle Paul in saying, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” although he never made it to Spain. Well done, Corinn.

(Picture Credit: Evan Thompson, Sapphire 7 Studios)

Yet, nothing is sweeter than the grace and faithfulness of Jesus Christ. He invites all who are weak and heavy laden to come to Him. He invites us to renounce our confidence in our adequacies and cling to Him. He gives life to those who ask Him. When we do so, He will remain faithful in the storms of life, even when our faith seems to fail us. For He is the faithful One.