If you don’t know what this “thorn in my flesh” thing is take a gander in the Book of 2 Corinthians. In chapter 12 Paul writes about this un-named man (it was Paul) that received an overwhelming vision of heaven. Due to this grand experience God allowed Paul to have what he called “a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me”. Paul’s thorn is not described in detail. We only know it was something that God would not remove from Paul’s life. When God denied Paul’s third request to take it away God responded with, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Saintly Paul was weak and God demonstrated His greatness through it. The pain brought humility to an amazing man of God.
I didn’t understand this passage when I was younger. Those that walked faithfully with God were not suppose to feel hardship, my young Christian mind concluded. My hair has changed color and so has my perspective. Pain and difficulties are regularly a part of the Christian’s life.
I began to wonder if God still used the same approach today; allowing a painful struggle to bring humility to a Christian that was living a fruitful spiritual life. So, I began asking mature believers I encountered, “has God given you a ‘thorn in your flesh’ to keep you humble”? The response to that question usually went like this; a puzzled look, a small smile, and then thoughtful silence. Once they recovered some knew exactly was I was talking about. They shared, in non-specific terms, “Yes. There were difficult things God allowed in their life to keep them humble and addicted to His grace”. Others I asked kind of fumbled and stumbled at the question. My conclusion was that God is still helping believers grow humility through difficulty that they need Him to help them endure.
Recently, I asked myself this question. I am kind of surprised I didn’t think of it before. I guess I did not consider myself in the “mature Christian” category at the time. After some pondering my thorn was obvious to me. My brain often doesn’t work quite right. My struggle can best be described as follows: I am sitting in my closed office with 25 people pounding on the door, all needing help at the same time. As much as I try to go sort out and prioritize everyone’s needs, it is still pandemonium out there. I deal with this circus through “the tirany of the urgent”; I address the most urgent things and then hide in my office from the rest of the chaos. The people are always knocking and they never get fewer in number regardless how many I help. I tried medication for it once. I grew horns, my eyebrows looked evil, and I was a grumpy grouch. My wife was happy when I quit taking them and she got her husband back.
God will allow some difficulties in our lives. We will wonder why. As Christians we think we have earned God’s favorite status. And, we have, along with everyone else. But God realizes we will think we are doing all this good stuff on our own. So, He allows those hard things into our lives to remind us of our constant need for Him; His love, His direction, His grace, for His glory. In our heart of hearts it is what we want. “Cowboy up!” Allow God to grow humility in your life through the hard things.
