You qualify for assistance!
This week is on 2 Corinthians 12:1-10:
I don't like doing things I'm not good at. I'd just as soon not do them at all. No matter what we excel at, there's always someone more qualified. A lot of people worry about what they're not good at, or take unnecessary pride in what they are good at. The problem with that is that it drowns out the miraculous and the divine. How can you build on something that's already qualified itself as the best? It'll just be "more better" and you won't notice a real difference.
Miracles thrive where we're weak, though. There's nothing wrong with being strong, or having something you're great at. We're supposed to improve ourselves, and we're supposed to excel wherever we can. That's how we're designed. The thing we don't often realize, though, is that being weak is pretty great too. Being horrible at something provides the ideal canvas for God to paint his miracles onto, because there's a lot of contrast. Which stands out more, the blind guy who can suddenly see, or the guy with 20/30 in one eye, uncorrected, who finally gets to see 20/20 in both eyes? The blind guy qualifies for a miracle. The guy with nearly perfect vision probably does too, but who could tell? Who would even bother to ask?
We even know this in our hearts. Who would you rather see win ten million dollars in the lottery? The hard working poor guy, or the hard working billionaire? One feels more right. Given the choice between praying for the guy with the slight limp or praying for the guy with one leg, most people would pick the one-legged man. We know this. But when we're the one-legged man, nothing is telling us that we qualify for a miracle. We're just angry we don't have the other leg.
In studies on happiness, people have found that happiness is pretty constant across populations, regardless of circumstances. If anything, the less of "the things that make people happy" that a person has, the happier they tend to be. How is that possible? Why are rich movie stars committing suicide while guys in wheelchairs in chronic pain are super happy? God confounds the wise in favor of the foolish, sometimes, because his world doesn't work exactly the way we think it does.
That gives a whole new spin to "blessed are the poor." People usually see it like we should all strive to be poor so that we can get some intangible quantity X in return, which would then be our "blessing." But then how would you take "blessed are those who mourn?" Should you kill someone you love, or kill yourself, so that people can be immeasurably sad, and thus be blessed? Absolutely not. That's crazy talk! When you're weak, or poor, or just bad at life, you're in a position to qualify for God's miraculous help. The hammer is cocked, ready to fire you into greatness! People who are already mostly there don't seem to qualify, for some reason. They can get the rest of the way on their own, but you...you need all the help you can get, and there's no hiding it.
Paul comes to the strange conclusion that he should brag about his weaknesses. But why shouldn't he? That's foreshadowing for God's miracles! If he sucks at public speaking, like epic fail suckage, and then suddenly pulls off an awesome speech that leads thousands to Christ, where would you think that came from? It had to be God! How could you not say God is great after seeing something like that? For the person dying of cancer, wouldn't the cancer disappearing completely give their life an intensity that never would have been possible without looking death in the face? That person is blessed. That's the sort of thing Paul would brag about.
In industrialized westernized societies, we don't see a whole lot of miracles. Between our wealth, and our technology, and our science and medical advancements, we don't really have much more to ask for. In Paul's sense, what do we have left to brag about? But if you hear about churches in impoverished third world nations, people are getting healed all of the time. It's almost impossible for them to get help anywhere else, so they definitely qualify. :) Here, you'd just ask whether it was God, or the penicillin. The excitement for us is where we can't make ends meet. When you get to that point, truly, you begin to see a lot of God's intervention. If you can find an area like that in today's world, something you couldn't buy a pill to fix, or take a class to change, or get your insurance to cover, be proud. You qualify for divine assistance.
I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell. I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say.To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
I don't like doing things I'm not good at. I'd just as soon not do them at all. No matter what we excel at, there's always someone more qualified. A lot of people worry about what they're not good at, or take unnecessary pride in what they are good at. The problem with that is that it drowns out the miraculous and the divine. How can you build on something that's already qualified itself as the best? It'll just be "more better" and you won't notice a real difference.
Miracles thrive where we're weak, though. There's nothing wrong with being strong, or having something you're great at. We're supposed to improve ourselves, and we're supposed to excel wherever we can. That's how we're designed. The thing we don't often realize, though, is that being weak is pretty great too. Being horrible at something provides the ideal canvas for God to paint his miracles onto, because there's a lot of contrast. Which stands out more, the blind guy who can suddenly see, or the guy with 20/30 in one eye, uncorrected, who finally gets to see 20/20 in both eyes? The blind guy qualifies for a miracle. The guy with nearly perfect vision probably does too, but who could tell? Who would even bother to ask?
We even know this in our hearts. Who would you rather see win ten million dollars in the lottery? The hard working poor guy, or the hard working billionaire? One feels more right. Given the choice between praying for the guy with the slight limp or praying for the guy with one leg, most people would pick the one-legged man. We know this. But when we're the one-legged man, nothing is telling us that we qualify for a miracle. We're just angry we don't have the other leg.
In studies on happiness, people have found that happiness is pretty constant across populations, regardless of circumstances. If anything, the less of "the things that make people happy" that a person has, the happier they tend to be. How is that possible? Why are rich movie stars committing suicide while guys in wheelchairs in chronic pain are super happy? God confounds the wise in favor of the foolish, sometimes, because his world doesn't work exactly the way we think it does.
That gives a whole new spin to "blessed are the poor." People usually see it like we should all strive to be poor so that we can get some intangible quantity X in return, which would then be our "blessing." But then how would you take "blessed are those who mourn?" Should you kill someone you love, or kill yourself, so that people can be immeasurably sad, and thus be blessed? Absolutely not. That's crazy talk! When you're weak, or poor, or just bad at life, you're in a position to qualify for God's miraculous help. The hammer is cocked, ready to fire you into greatness! People who are already mostly there don't seem to qualify, for some reason. They can get the rest of the way on their own, but you...you need all the help you can get, and there's no hiding it.
Paul comes to the strange conclusion that he should brag about his weaknesses. But why shouldn't he? That's foreshadowing for God's miracles! If he sucks at public speaking, like epic fail suckage, and then suddenly pulls off an awesome speech that leads thousands to Christ, where would you think that came from? It had to be God! How could you not say God is great after seeing something like that? For the person dying of cancer, wouldn't the cancer disappearing completely give their life an intensity that never would have been possible without looking death in the face? That person is blessed. That's the sort of thing Paul would brag about.
In industrialized westernized societies, we don't see a whole lot of miracles. Between our wealth, and our technology, and our science and medical advancements, we don't really have much more to ask for. In Paul's sense, what do we have left to brag about? But if you hear about churches in impoverished third world nations, people are getting healed all of the time. It's almost impossible for them to get help anywhere else, so they definitely qualify. :) Here, you'd just ask whether it was God, or the penicillin. The excitement for us is where we can't make ends meet. When you get to that point, truly, you begin to see a lot of God's intervention. If you can find an area like that in today's world, something you couldn't buy a pill to fix, or take a class to change, or get your insurance to cover, be proud. You qualify for divine assistance.
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