Have you ever been asked these infamous questions on a job interview?
“What are your strengths?” with the unfortunate follow-up, “What are your weaknesses?”
That’s always a funny question to me because, really, what is someone suppose to say in that moment? “Well, Mr. Pleasehireme, I tend to show up late, I call-in sick a lot and my former co-workers said I have an attitude problem…when do I start?”
Um…how about never?
Nobody wants to be weak. At anything. It’s an ego bruiser and a pride deflater.
Maybe that’s exactly why we have them.
If you’ve been a Christian for any length of time, you’ve heard the story about Paul and his “thorn in the flesh”. It’s been said that no one really knows exactly what that “thorn” was….there is speculation but that’s it. But what we do know is that it was from the enemy.
Here’s the context: (You’ve probably read this a thousand times but this translation might become your favorite.)
2 Corinthians 12: 7-10 (The Message) Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me, My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness. Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.
Paul is like anyone else regarding a weakness. He doesn’t like it. He doesn’t want it. He asked God to take it away from him. God doesn’t say yes or no. Instead, He acknowledges what Paul says is true – He affirms that Paul does have a weakness. But He still doesn’t remove it.
Can you relate to Paul? I know I can. What’s that thing that you just can’t seem to shake off, no matter how much you pray? You know it’s not from God so you want it gone.
My thing may not be your thing but it’s still a thing that likes to torment me and make me feel…weak. If I didn’t have it, I feel like I would be so much more effective but it’s there and doesn’t seem like it’s going anywhere.
Maybe that’s exactly where God wants me.
Paul’s words in this verse are so key – this thorn “tormented” Paul. You can almost picture a little devil on his shoulder, constantly taunting him. Then, Paul turns the tables on him.
Instead of horns on the little guy, he puts a big bow on him. He calls his thorn a gift.
From tormenter to gift – big difference.
It’s easy to feel defeated by our thorns. I beat myself up all the time because I just can’t understand why I struggle with the same thing time after time. I feel like less of a Christian because of it.
But I also know that because I am in “constant touch with my limitations” as Paul said, I’m also in constant dialogue with God. That’s not a bad place to be.
Am I hoping that one day I won’t have to deal with this anymore? Of course. But until then, I/we can change the impact of our thorns. Instead of letting it get us down, we can recognize all it has to offer.
Big head prevention? Yup. Praying more? Definitely. Getting stronger through Christ? Absolutely.
2 Corinthians 4:7 (NLT) We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.
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My thoughts [if you want to read them] 