Thankful for Helplessness

[Read 2 Corinthians 12:7-10]

It’s an interesting experience waking up in the hospital after being in a coma for two weeks. Since you don’t exactly know where you are or what’s happening, the nurses have a list of questions they ask you: What’s your name?  Jason. When’s your birthday? March 6^th. Do you know what day it is? October [insert date] Why are you in the hospital? COVID. And they keep asking you these questions every day to make sure you are oriented toward reality. 

Eventually, I got tired of answering these questions over and over and over again. So, I decided to change things up a bit. As the nurses routinely went through their questions, I answered routinely, until we got to the last question. They asked: Why are you in the hospital? And I decided to answer: Because I’m an idiot. It was pretty great. You should have seen the looks on their faces. These sweet, nice nurses looked at me with horror and confusion. They immediately tried convincing me I wasn’t an idiot. I just smiled and explained myself. I was an idiot to wait so long before going to the hospital. I was an idiot to think I was stronger than I actually was. 

The reality is that we all think we’re stronger than we actually are. None of us like to admit we are actually helpless and weak. We are immersed in a culture that is obsessed with strength and power. It’s all they have. They’ve removed God from the picture, so what’s left? We are. So, in order to give themselves comfort and peace, they repeatedly tell themselves they are strong. And whenever weakness comes into the picture, they try to cover it up, hide it, or pretend it’s not there—hoping it will disappear. And, let’s be honest, there is NO WAY in the world we would ever hear someone say they are THANKFUL for their weakness. 

Yet, here we see the Apostle Paul doing that very thing. Not only is he thankful for his weakness, he is content with his weakness and boasts in his weakness. When was the last time you heard someone give thanks for their weakness? When was the last time you heard someone boast in their weakness? It doesn’t happen, does it? 

Someone might say, “Well, that’s easy for Paul to say. His weaknesses are stronger than my strengths. I mean, he’s the Apostle Paul.” But look at the weaknesses Paul describes. He says, “So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.” (2 Corinthians 12:7, ESV). Now, there’s a lot of conversation about this “thorn in the flesh,” and I’ll be honest, we don’t know for certain what Paul is talking about. Many people have attributed this “thorn in the flesh” to be some physical ailment—possibly the onset of blindness or some sickness. Others have attributed this “thorn in the flesh” to be some form of demonic oppression. 

Yet, I think he is speaking more generally here. Paul uses the word “flesh” quite a bit in his writings—almost 100 times. The primary way he uses the term “flesh” isn’t talking about our physical bodies, but about our sinful nature. I think that’s what Paul is talking about here. The thorn in the flesh is his sinful nature—which is from Satan himself—and that sinful nature is a constant reminder of his weakness. He’s not strong enough to overcome the sin in his life—he’s completely helpless to it. The same is true for every single one of us. 

He also goes on to talk about external weaknesses. He says, “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.” (2 Corinthians 12:10, ESV). Paul reminds us that he is weak on the inside and on the outside. Not only does he continually struggle with sin in his life—he calls himself the greatest of all sinners—but he is also physically weak—constantly faced with insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficult situations. He’s worn out, tired, helpless—and so are we. 

Whether we like to admit it or not, we are all helpless—internally and externally. Think about it for a moment. If I walked up to you right now and thoughtlessly slapped you across the face, how would you respond? With grace and dignity? Or to amp things up, how would you respond if I did that to your wife or children? My assumption is that you would automatically respond to that situation—helplessly—in a way that may not be proper. That’s because our sinful nature is still waging war inside us, preventing us from doing what brings glory and honor to God. 

We’re also helpless externally. Take a moment to try to change the weather or try to add an hour to your life or try to make your hair grow. To make things more practical, try to prevent yourself from anything bad ever happening to you. Or, something that’s been personal to me lately, make yourself heal. You can’t do it—not even the doctors can do it. The only thing you can do is put yourself in a position to heal, but you CANNOT make yourself heal. We are completely helpless and we don’t like it. We actually hate it. 

Yet, we’re told to be content in our weakness—even more to boast in our weakness. And I’m saying these things in a different way, reminding us to be THANKFUL for our weakness. How in the world can we do that? 

After Paul pleads with God to remove his weakness—to heal him of his sinful nature and protect him from difficulties—here’s how God responds: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9, ESV). So, later Paul exclaims: “For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:10, ESV). 

Here’s my paraphrase of God’s response to Paul. Paul cries out to God, “Help me. I’m weak. I’m not strong enough to overcome this sin in my life. I’m not strong enough to endure this trial in my life.” Then God responds, “You’re right. You are not strong enough. I am strong enough. My grace is strong enough. Trust me—have faith—and you will experience my strength.” 

These verses are extremely popular amongst Christians today, but I often see these verses terribly misused—especially the last one. I’ve watched people use that last verse like some Buddhist mantra—acting like they will become strong by simply repeating the phrase over and over. Yet, notice what they’re trying to do. They aren’t embracing their weakness. They aren’t content in their weakness. They aren’t boasting in their weakness. They are unhappy with their weakness and discontent with their weakness. They are trying to overcome their weakness. They are doing the exact opposite of what this verse is trying to teach us. 

There’s one more correction I need to make. It’s a correction I experienced as I prepared this message. It’s very common in the church today to see our trials as strength training exercises. When we lift weights we break down our muscles and become weak, but eventually they come back stronger. 

The church has used that analogy to talk about the trial in our lives—I’ve used that analogy to talk about trials in our lives—trials may break us down but they only make us stronger. There’s some truth in that statement, but take a moment to look at the focus of that analogy. It’s on OUR strength. We end up twisting God’s Word to say that “OUR strength is made perfect in our weakness” rather than HIS strength being made perfect in our weakness. 

Our trials and weaknesses aren’t designed to strengthen us. They’re designed to strengthen our reliance on God’s power—to strengthen our faith. That’s the way God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. It shines through our weaknesses and carries us through difficulties and struggle. And, let me tell you something: That is POWERFUL. 

If you go through life thinking you are strong enough, you will eventually encounter a situation where you are not strong enough. You will eventually realize you are completely helpless in this world and you will crash and burn. Relying on our own strength is no strength at all. It’s actually a weakness. 

Yet, when we go through life accepting the reality of our helplessness—content in our helplessness—fully trusting in God’s strength, we experience God’s strength in powerful ways. We don’t have to be strong enough or good enough, we simply have to trust God and do it.

Here’s an example of what I mean. A number of years ago a friend of mine committed suicide, leaving his pregnant wife alone with another young child. His wife was like a little sister to me. Obviously, she was really struggling with everything. She locked herself in her room and wouldn’t talk to anyone. Eventually, her dad called me and said, “She wants to talk to you. You’re the only one she will talk to right now.” Now, contrary to popular opinion, pastor’s don’t have all the answers—especially in circumstances like this. What do you say to someone who’s husband just committed suicide? I have no idea! All that ran through my mind in that moment was, “I have no idea what to do. I’m struggling with this myself. I’m broken. I’m weak. I’m not good enough or smart enough or sensitive enough to help her.” I was painfully aware of my own weakness and my helplessness in that situation. Yet, I went anyway. Why? Because I was also painfully aware that God was calling me to talk to her. So, in my weakness, I trusted God and entered that difficult situation. If I would have trusted in my own strength, I would NEVER have entered that house. The only way I was able to enter that difficult situation was to be thankful for my own helplessness and thankful for having a God who is far from helpless. 

This is what it looks like to live a life of faith. We take every weak breath and every weak step trusting God to give us the strength to keep going—and He does it over and over and over again. What do we do when we need to have a conversation with someone that we feel totally unequipped for? We acknowledge our weakness, thank God for it, remember the ways God has given us strength in the past, trust that He will give us strength in this situation, then enter that situation by faith. What do we do when we find ourselves in a situation where we don’t think we have enough strength to keep going on? We do the same thing. We acknowledge our weakness, thank God for it, remember the ways God has given us strength in the past, trust that He will give us strength in this situation, then enter that situation by faith. And we do that over and over and over. The more we do that the more our faith is strengthened and the more we experience the truth that God’s power is made perfect in our weakness.