THORNS IN THE FLESH

New York Times writer David Brooks, began his book The Road to Character by contrasting résumé virtues and eulogy virtues. The résumé virtues are the ones you list on your résumé that contribute to external success. The eulogy virtues are deeper. They are the virtues that exist at the core of your being. He goes on to write about the two opposing sides of our nature: the career-oriented, ambitious side that wants high status, and the internal side that wants to embody certain moral qualities. The first’s motto is “Success”, the second is “Charity, love and redemption.” He claims that we live in a culture that nurtures the first – the career side at the expense of the inner life. But is this anything new? Have not all ages boasted about what they considered strengths? The Romans built triumphal arches to celebrate the successes of their emperors and their armies. Long before then, Jeremiah in the sixth century B.C. prophesied:

“Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom

Or the strong man boast of his strength

Or the rich man boast of his riches,

But let who boasts boast about this:

That he understands and knows me,

That I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,

justice and righteousness on earth,

For in these I delight,”

declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 9:23,24)

What does our culture boast about today? What are the high value items that are the subject of commercials on television and articles in newspapers and magazines. They are: physical health, self-confidence, longevity of life, security, the accumulation of wealth and power, the achievements of fame in entertainment, the arts, sciences and business. They are the categories of success. Brooks writes that the message of the popular culture is that you are special. “Movies from Pixar and Disney are constantly telling children how wonderful they are. Commencement speakers are larded with the same clichés: Follow your passion. You have a responsibility to do great things because you are so great. This is the gospel of self-trust.” (p.7)

However St. Paul writes about Satan masquerading as an angel of light, and false apostles masquerading as servants of righteousness. Beware of those who claim to know the truth and what is right. There are many attractive false teachers and pundits around today as they were in Paul’s day.

To aim only for “Success” is to be deceived. Instead, using irony and sarcasm St. Paul, describes a counter-cultural approach. “Since many are boasting in the way the world does, I too will boast.” He goes on to list all his accomplishments – but not those valued by the world – not what would be considered résumé virtues – but those that show that the world despises and rejects him: his imprisonments, his floggings, beatings, stonings, dangers, deprivations and escapes from the governing authorities. He says:”I will boast of the things that show my weakness.” He acknowledges that he has had visions and revelations from the Lord but he does not dwell on those experiences. He said, “I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses.” Instead of self-love, and self-promotion, he promotes humility. David Brooks writes:

Humility is freedom from the need to prove you are superior all the time, but egotism is a ravenous hunger in a small space – self-concerned, competitive, and distinction-hungry….Truly humble people are engaged in a great effort to magnify what is best in themselves and defeat what is worst, to become strong in the weak places…Our basic problem is that we are self-centered, a plight beautifully captured in the famous commencement address David Foster Wallace gave at Kenyon College in 2005: “Everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe; the realest, most vivid and important person in existence. We rarely think about this sort of natural, basic self-centeredness because it is so socially repulsive. But it’s pretty much the same for all of us. It is our default setting, hard-wired into our boards at birth.” (Brooks, p.8,10)

St. Paul shares how God dealt with this self-centered pride in him that can serve as a lesson for all of us. “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassing great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.” The thorn on the flesh is anything that gives us pain. It can be used by Satan to discourage us and defeat us.

There comes a time in our lives when we experience suffering from which we cannot escape or evade. God allows the pain into our lives to keep us humble and to realize that we are dependent on him alone. God allows thorns in our flesh, to keep us from the default drive in our lives to be conceited. How do we respond? How do we deal with these Satanic tests that torment us?

The proper response is that of the apostles – it is to pray. “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.” He prayed for deliverance – and so should we. When confronted with his suffering he complained to the Lord and called out for help. That is the natural and humble response. Jesus did this in the garden of Gethsemane. As Jesus had to drink the cup of suffering in order to fulfill his destiny and the salvation of the world, we may have to endure the thorns in our lives to fulfill God’s destiny for us. God’s answer may not be deliverance from the pain, but deliverance through the pain. The pain may never go away in this life. The loss we have experienced will always be with us.  Jesus promised, “Blessed are those who mourn.” We do not get over our suffering, but we get through it.

“He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’” We learn the sufficiency of the grace of God when there is nowhere else to turn. We experience the power of God perfectly when we are at our weakest. God can use us best when we have nothing to give of ourselves. We allow him to take over and work in us and through us completely. There is no self-centeredness and no egotism left to prevent him from working in us. “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.”

We have a choice when we are in extremity. Either we get angry and depressed at losing control and power over our lives, or we learn to trust in the grace and power of Christ and are grateful for his many blessings.       What is seen to be weak in this world: suffering, disability, pain, poverty, financial hardships, the difficulties of life, is the necessary precursor to strength. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” repeats multiple myeloma sufferer Todd Billings (Rejoicing in Lament) as he lies on the hospital table for his bone marrow biopsy. It is not the résumé virtues that sustain us when we hit hard times. It is not how much money we have in the bank that counts when we are facing an incurable disease or when we are dying. It is the realization that what is important is that God makes us strong in his grace and uses us in our weaknesses to serve others to glorify him. For it is the Lord who is there with us who can bring us through to the other side of glory.

Do you believe that in your heart? Can you live it? That is the test. Sometimes we pass the test and sometimes we fail. But we have to keep on trusting in the Lord who is our only hope.