|
The apostle Paul was a spiritual giant—his prayers "availed
much"—he started churches all over the Roman empire,
and miracles followed wherever he went. Success was his hallmark.
But not this time.
This time Paul hit a wall.
"Three times I prayed to the Lord to take away this thorn
in the flesh." It didn't work. Whatever his thorn
in the flesh was, it stayed with him.
There are many theories about what his problem might have been.
All we know for sure is that it was a chronic, painful condition
that wouldn't go away. It's probably good that we
can't be any more specific than that, because we can relate
better that way. Most of us have something in our lives that
we'd like to be rid of, but it shows no sign of leaving.
We have to deal with it. A physical condition like back pain,
or fibromyalgia, or migraines; a mental condition of fear or
depression; a relational problem that shows no sign of change:
it's constantly there, and it's not quite bad enough
to incapacitate. We have to go on, but there are days we wonder
if we can.
It's a brick wall in our lives.
Like Paul, we go through the stages of resistance, desperation,
and at long last acceptance. The serenity prayer describes our
need: "Lord, give me the courage to change the things I
can change, the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
and the wisdom to know the difference." What condition
do we face that ultimately is teaching us to rely on God's
grace: "My grace is sufficient for you." That's
not always easy to hear. "But Lord, you have to get this
pain out of my life. You have to rid me of this weakness."
The Christian faith does not glorify suffering. Our response
to suffering has always been to try to alleviate it. In this
we follow Christ himself, who brought healing to some of the
darkest human experiences. We encourage hospitals and medicine
and counseling and fellowship, to relieve the hurts of people.
But there is also the mystery of God who often works best in
the broken places. "My power is made perfect in weakness." It's
a difficult saying, which we could spend a lifetime exploring.
But in part it must mean, when I cease to rely on my own ability
and trust God's ability, there's a breakthrough:
when ego gets out of the way, I can be filled with more of God.
Without in any way glorifying weakness and suffering, it can
have this effect sometimes.
Jesus also hit something of a brick wall. In this case, it came
in the form of rejection. His own neighbors wouldn't accept
him. They though they knew him to well. "This is Mary's
son. Who does he think he is?" Brick wall. Or maybe not.
Jesus simply moved on. He saw opportunity all around, and he
moved on to the next place. Sometimes we obsess about a particular
problem when we'd do much better to let go of that problem
and focus on something more productive. Our brick walls can become
open doors.
Steve Jobs tells the story of his journey. His mother put him
up for adoption because she couldn't affords to raised
him. She insisted that the adopting family send him to college.
Eighteen years later, his adoptive parents kept their promise—but
Steve quickly realized he was bankrupting them, so he dropped
out of his expensive school: brick wall. But then he began to
work on his idea for a home computer. He called it the Macintosh.
By the time he was 29 he was founder and CEO of a $50 billion
business. Open door. But then, by the time he was 30, he'd
been fired by his own company. Brick wall. They called it creative
differences. Next Steve went to work on his idea for film animation—it's
called Pixar—and the Disney people bought it. Box office
hits like Toy Story, Shrek, and Cars came from Steve's
studio. Open door. Two years ago Steve was diagnosed with pancreatic
cancer. Very big brick wall. Almost always fatal. Steve started
saying all the things to his wife and kids he'd figured
he had years to say—how he loved them, and what they meant
to him. It turned out he had a rare form that was operable—and
he's doing fine. But the open door this time was whole
new perspective on life, and what's really important.
When we hit a brick wall in life, when our prayers aren't
being answered as we hoped, and it seems there's no way
out—look for the open door, the redeeming factor, where
God is at work. And hear those words of the Lord being spoken
to you: "My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made
perfect in weakness." |
