For my power is made perfect in weakness

2 Corinthians 12:6-10 (TNIV) -

6 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,7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.9 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.

10 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.

My thoughts -

Ever since I first read this passage as a kid I have wondered what Paul's thorn in the flesh was. It seems that no one really knows. Maybe I'm missing something and some scholar among you has a good answer but I don't know of one that is universally accepted.

There are a couple of schools of thought on Paul's thorn in the flesh could have been that I am aware of. One is a person who tormented him; the other some kind of physical malady. Either can become a nuisance quickly and can be quite humbling.

Paul's response to this "thorn" is one I can identify with: he asked God to take it away. Our first response when we encounter some kind of hardship is to ask God for relief from it. Sometimes we receive that blessed relief but a lot of times we do not. That does not mean that God doesn't care. That does not mean that God is trying to test or to punish us. I don't know why we suffer. I don't know that the "why" matters all that much, at least not while we're suffering. What matters is how we can endure the suffering.

God did not remove Paul's "thorn", at least not as of the writing of this passage. Instead, God provides for Paul grace to endure this affliction and perspective to turn what the world may view as a negative into a positive. Paul may have to endure this affliction but in doing so he is (almost forcibly) made to be humble and to rely on God for strength. This is an opportunity for Paul to mature and grow in his faith and to acknowledge his dependence upon God. While that may not be the most pleasant process the results of that process produced one of the great pillars of our faith.

Paul endured a lot of hardships for his faith. Paul was a man who was acutely aware of suffering in the human condition. He was beaten, shipwrecked, stoned, starved, imprisoned, and ultimately martyred for his preaching. Following Jesus faithfully is no guarantee that you will not face hardships and suffering. But God's grace is sufficient. God gives us the strength to endure whatever comes our way and the hope to persevere through adversity. Whatever Paul's thorn may have been God enabled Paul to not allow it to hinder his ministry and to ultimately use what, from a worldly perspective would seem a weakness, as a strength.

I don't know why we suffer. But I do know that through grace it can be endured and ultimately redeemed. We Christians are in the redemption business.