How many of you have ever been hiking? And on those hikes, how many times have you ever managed to get one of those annoying burrs stuck in your socks and shoes? And, this is the more related question this morning, how many times did you just leave that burr and continued on you hike limping away? Let’s read a passage from 2 Corinthians.
2 Corinthians 12:6-10
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, 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. 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.
Today I would like to talk about the thorn. When we read, hear or even just think upon this verse, I believe that we all quickly realize our own thorns that exist, or have existed, in our lives. Whether it was an event past, or something you are going through now, we’ve all had to deal with these thorns or varying degrees. It could be a thorn of pain or suffering. Maybe a thorn of persecution. Or possibly even a thorn of that annoying neighbor. Whatever it might be, it is a constant source of irritation and discomfort.
While I don’t wish to make any of us to focus on these issues too much this morning, I would like you all to take a moment to think about your thorn. How have you dealt with it? I would assume you’ve prayed about it, so if so, how did you pray? Did you ask God to remove the thorn, as Paul did? Did God remove the thorn? If not, did you learn to deal with it? Did it make you grateful? Or did it make you bitter?
I’ve talked previously about our acreage we own in Edmonton. For three years, Corrie and I have prayed for God to sell this acreage. For three years, God has chosen not to do so. For three years, we have analyzed, researched and examined all of our decisions we made. Was this a wrong step here? Did we move incorrectly there? Where did we go wrong? Then, in a flash of brilliance, we had the answer. We were sure of it. This is the lesson God wanted us to learn! And still, the acreage remained unsold. And so we would start all over again.
Eventually, I became discouraged. I became confused. And then, I soon became simply distant. I didn’t want to think about it anymore. I stopped praying about it, I stopped wondering about it.
And then, I had a still, quiet moment. I believe that God reached down and spoke to me. I’ve mentioned before that I ride my bike to work. Many mornings, if I can drag myself out of bed on time, I will leave early enough that I can stop on some great spots on the trail that overlook the Kamloops valleys. Here, I have a few quiet moments reading my bible and praying. Well, a few weeks ago I realized I hadn’t done this in a very long time. So, I got up early enough one morning and rode out to this spot. As soon as I started praying, I started with the same old, same old lines. “God, please sell this acreage…” Then, suddenly, I stopped. And it was then that I believe God gave me a realization. I began to think about the past three years. What has been the one thing that has driven me closer to God over the past few years? The acreage. What has been the one constant that has caused me to lean on God? The acreage. What one area in my life has made me consistently focus on God? The acreage!
Suddenly, I blurted out, “God, don’t sell the acreage!”
When life it going good, when there are no stresses, no cause for concern, no heartbreaks, what also tends to be missing in our lives? Our dependence on God. The more we have that life that everyone feels so compelled to achieve, the more we tend to lose our reliance on our heavenly Father.
And when I blurted out “God, don’t sell the acreage!”, I meant it. If it wasn’t for the acreage, would I be where I was today? If it wasn’t for the trials that having this extra burden in our lives brought, would I have what I have today?
That morning, I prayed that God would continue to help me grow. I asked for acceptance of the acreage. I asked for God to grant me peace about the burden. And I thanked God for it. And God told me, through the words of Paul in 2 Corinthians, “My grace is made perfect in your weakness.”
Are we willing to live with that thorn in our side?
Paul states “in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn”. We don’t know what this thorn was, although many have speculated and some seem to even have some enlightened truth that no one else received. However, what Paul’s thorn was is not important. What is important is, one, he had a thorn and, two, God did not remove it.
That second part is crucial. God did not remove it.
Are you ready for this? Think back again to your own thorn. Are you willing to live the rest of your life with it?
One thing that I’ve always struggled with as far as witnessing is the whole trials and tribulations of the Christian walk. How does that look good on our advertising pamphlets? Come, follow Christ and endure hardships! Come, walk with God and experience heart ache and trouble!
But God has started to give me a better understanding lately of what this means. What is our goal as Christians? We talked about this a few months ago. Our goal is to become Christ like. Why? To glorify God, our maker. As such, if going through trials brings me closer to that goal, then we should all, as Paul did, “boast all the more gladly in our weaknesses”. Paul said, “I delight in my weakness.” Delight! Rejoice! Really?
That same morning, after I continued on riding, I got to the bottom of the Peterson’s Creek valley. As I stood at the creek side, looking up at the hill in front of me, I realized a similarity between my ride and what God had just started to reveal to me about suffering. When I leave the house and get on that bike, I have two goals in mind. One, to get to work. But, if that was my only goal, then I could drive, take the bus, or even hitchhike. But, I also have a larger goal of getting more into shape. I stood beside the creek, thinking about how the following 30 minutes of riding were all uphill. 30 minutes of nothing but climbing.
So, I thought, what if I asked God to remove this hill? What if I prayed, “God, I don’t like this struggle, please take away these 30 minutes of climbing.” And, what if God did that? My goal, getting to work and getting more in shape, would leave with the removal of that hill. Sure, my next 30 minutes would be easy. I might even think I’m having a good time. But what a waste! If God moved that hill, He also would have to move my goal further away from me! And, if he did so, my next 30 minutes of riding on flat trails would be a complete waste of time and effort.
And, yet, how often do we focus our prayers on how we want God to remove our trials from us? How often do we find ourselves praying that God simply removes this thorn? And what if he did?
God never promises us a free ride. If you were to do a few quick flips through your Bible, you would find many, many references to trials and tribulations in our walk.
1 Peter 5:10: And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you
James 1:12: Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
Romans 12:12: Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
Romans 5:3: More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance
Romans 8:18: For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
James 1:2: Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds
Should I continue? We could do this all day. And yet, we so easily fall into the human nature of desiring what is uncomfortable in our lives to be removed. Are you cold? Turn on the furnace. Are you hot? Turn on the Air Conditioning. Do you not sleep well? Buy a memory foam. Do your feet hurt? Buy fitted insoles. And the list goes on and on. Please don’t get me wrong, I am not saying we all go home and sell our mattresses, shoes and air conditioners. But what I’m saying is the way of life that we have been privileged to live here in North America is one that focuses on removing discomforts. And the way of life that Jesus lays out before us is one that doesn’t avoid discomforts, but instead embraces them.
I’m not sure if any of you follow the Tour De France? It just ended just over a month ago I believe. If you don’t know anything about the Tour De France, let me fill you in. This tour is a bike race where the racers ride for 3 weeks covering a distance of around 3500 kms. These riders put on anywhere from a paltry 100 kms in a day to often over 200! They have some days riding in the flats, but the majority of the ride is through strenuous and painful climbs through France and neighboring countries. The ride has been compared to running a marathon several days a week for three weeks! They say the elevation of the climbs has often been compared to “three Mount Everests”. Well, I watched some of these stages and I have decided that I’m going to enter this race next year.
So, in preparation of this, I am going to go out and buy a $10,000 road bike. I will also put aside about $2000 to make sure I have the right fancy clothing. And, of course, I will subscribe to Bicycling magazine, Bike magazine, and any others I can find so I can read thoroughly about this sport and get a good understanding. I will dedicate at least 15 minutes each day to reading online about past races, winners and others involved in the race. And, for good measure, I will buy as many video footage of previous races that I can.
But I won’t ride a single mile on my new bike.
Nope, that’s painful stuff! Why would I put myself through such daily torture? Have any of you seen those guys riding their bikes up the Juniper hill? They’re in pain! Nope, not going to waste my time and put myself through such discomfort.
But, I think I’ll be ready for the Tour next summer.
So, maybe a bit of an exaggerated point, I know. But, really, this is how I feel that many of us, myself so often included, try to walk our walk with Christ. Lord, I’ll read my Bible at least 15 minutes a day. Oh, and I’ll be sure that I spend some good money on books from that local Christian bookstore to learn more about you. And, of course, I’ll go to church and even give my tithe.
And then God brings that thorn.
And then so many of us say, forget it, it’s too hard, God get rid of this thorn. Some of us wheel and deal. God, if you remove this thorn then I promise that I will… (fill in the blank). Some of us get upset… “God, why would you do this to me? Why would you allow this to happen to me?” But how many of us rejoice?
God says, count it as joy. Rejoice in your trials. Delight in your thorn.
However, I do not wish to end on this note. I do not want to focus on the suffering, or on our trials. God does not want us to be happy in the trial because of the pain. God wants us to be happy in the trial because of what that pain brings. God wishes us to rejoice in suffering because of how it brings us closer to our goal of becoming more Christ-like. As I ride my bike for 30 minutes going all up hill, I often do not think about it very joyfully. It would be a rare event for you to catch me smiling as I pedaled up those climbs. But at the end, I am happy. I feel good. I accomplished my goal, and that was satisfying. I got closer to my goal of getting into shape, and that is fulfilling.
We are never to seek out suffering on our own, we are never to wallow in our suffering, or to hold never ending pity parties. God does not want us to be focused on the suffering, he wants us to focus on the goal. God wants us to be happy with the trials He brings us because he wants us to realize that through them, we become stronger and more closer to Him.
As you leave this place today, think again about your thorn. Are you willing to live the rest of your life with this thorn? Are you willing to thank God for it? To praise and rejoice because of it? Are you willing to accept God’s supreme wisdom and rest on his understanding?
Remember, if God removes the mountain, he has to also remove your goal.
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.
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