Living in the Spirit
July 6, 2018
Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 12:2-10
Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given to me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong. –2 Corinthians 12:7b-10
What does the sentence “power is made perfect in weakness” mean? I see at least three possible interpretations. Personal weakness can be a source of empathy. I cannot reach the top shelf in the grocery store become I am short. Am I more apt to see the child or person in a wheel chair trying to reach an item that is easily accessible to me? Empathy is not automatically a result of weakness, but it can be. People who are also fully capable of reaching the top shelf can have empathy too and they may just by nature be emphatic. We also all can learn empathy. Lack of the ability to see the consequences others experience that we do not is a major source of what is dubbed “white privilege.”
The second possible interpretation is that our weaknesses build the fortitude to surpass our ability to achieve what seems impossible. When I worked at a children’s hospital, I was assign the amputee clinic. There was a teenage boy, basketball star, who had lost a leg in a farming accident. He was determined to continue playing basketball. I do not know who had the more determination to make that happen the youth or the representative from the prosthetic company trying to devise a limb that would make it possible. This was in 1975 and that company finally created a limb that worked which was the forerunner of the amazing work being done now.
The third interpretation is the foundation of the other two. Our weaknesses teach us how to trust in God, in others, and in ourselves.
Prayer: Lord, free us from any bitterness that might overcome us because of our weaknesses, open us to all the possibilities of empathy, fortitude, and trust that stem from those weaknesses. Amen