For some reason, this Blog posted in 2021 has come to my mind so many times this week. When He sends reminders, we are to take note. Glory to God in the Highest!
A thorn is a sharp thing, which pricks, pierces, irritates, lacerates, festers, and causes endless pain and inconvenience. Yet it is almost a secret thing, not very apparent to anyone but the sufferer.
Charles H. Spurgeon
Oh my goodness, isn’t that like the truest thing ever? Walk through the woods and you will know exactly what Spurgeon’s talking about. When you emerge from the walk, you have these little tiny thorns that have worked their way through your gloves that give you a world of worry. They are almost imperceptible, almost unnoticeable to the eye, but annoying and worrisome to the skin. I can completely relate. Not from a walk in the woods, but from a skirt I wore to work the other day. Where’s she going with this, you ask?
I have this blue skirt that I really like, but it has a little problem. You’re already thinking TMI, aren’t you? Hang in there, I’ll try to delicately explain. At the top of the zipper in the back, there’s an eyehook and I’m here to tell you it is not a small, normal sized eyehook, it is a big honking thing, or at least that’s what it feels like. By the time I got to work Friday, my back at the eyehook, was killing me. That thing was digging into my back! Especially when I sat down, which I do almost all day, that little tiny thing was gouging my skin. I was pitying Paul. Well, I thought to myself, I’m simply not going to be able to make it through the day with that thing poking me. It not only hurt, but it was such a major distraction. Well, I couldn’t rightly go home from work just because of an eyehook, so I did the next best thing. I looked for something to cover it to make it more comfortable and don’t you know it, there was like nothing I could find that would work. I was like, really?!?!? I need some relief here. So I started digging around in my file drawers and found the perfect thing! A sock. Yep, I keep a pair of those white footie socks in my sneakers at work. I folded that thing over the top of my skirt at the eyehook and I had instant relief, it was perfect! And Spurgeon was right, no one could see it because my sweater covered it. So, my day got off to a bumpy start, but now I was in business. The thorn in my side, back, was gone! The Apostle Paul could really have used a sock for his thorn, whatever it might have been.
Suffice it to say it was a crazy day at work, aren’t most days for everyone at work (regardless of where your work might be)? Anyway, towards the end of the day we got into a little bit of a pickle. A filing had to be done and the filer’s car was in the shop and had to be picked up by 5:00. So, at 4:45 pm two others of us dashed to get her car while she was taking care of the filing. The pickup didn’t go as smoothly as planned – it wasn’t one of those give me the keys I’m outahere kind of things. I’m standing in the car shop as they try to run through the filer’s credit card on a new credit card machine – someone came in to help, while I stand there petting the cat, yes, a cat. There’s the credit card machine helper, a mechanic or two and the really sweet lady in this room with me and then it happened!! I look over at one of the young mechanics and then I look at the floor and what do I see? My sock! No kidding, my sock had fallen out of my skirt and was laying on the floor. Who knows how long it had been there. I casually walk over pick up my sock and say hmmm…someone lost a sock. He looks at me with absolutely no expression. I smile and stuff it in my purse. It took everything I had not to completely lose my composure and fall on the floor hysterically laughing with my sock. Needless to say the thorn was back in my flesh!
It got even more interesting because my credit card was the one that worked in their credit card machine for some reason. So, obviously I couldn’t wait to get out of there, I’m laughing uncontrollably as I go out the door about my sock. It just keeps getting better – the filer called, I had left my credit card at the mechanic’s and they were closing and I was to pick up my credit card at Lambchops, the bar next door. I turn around, still laughing. I go to Lambchops, they buzz me in, and lo and behold the bartender was the credit card machine helper! The story just keeps going, but doesn’t involve my sock, so I’ll stop. By the way, that eyehook was still digging into my back, now that my sock was in my purse.
I know, it’s a very long story, I’m sorry. I try constantly to look for lessons from the Lord, and Friday happened to have a ton, but the one that stayed with me from morning to evening, was the thorn in my flesh.
That experience is worth boasting about, but I’m not going to do it. I will boast only about my weaknesses. If I wanted to boast, I would be no fool in doing so, because I would be telling the truth. But I won’t do it, because I don’t want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message, even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.
2 Corinthians 12:5-7
All day long I thought of Paul. Of course, my thorn was nothing like Paul’s thorn, I’m not comparing them, we don’t even know what his thorn was. I’m feeling certain that it wasn’t a silly eyehook thorn. But he does tell us how to handle those thorns of life, those tiny little thorns that no one else can see that distract and wound us.
Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”
2 Corinthians 12:8
Paul persistently presented his thorn to the Lord. He prayed about it. Spurgeon said “Anything is a blessing that makes us pray.” If we do not know Jesus, thorns will never be a blessing. So even though our thorn may be pricking, festering and causing us endless pain, if it drives us to our knees, it is a blessing.
So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
What Satan means for evil, the Lord uses for good. Paul’s weakness caused by the thorn brought glory to God. Our thorns may be very different but they should produce the same fruits as Paul’s. We are made strong when we are weak through the power of Jesus Christ. Don’t forget that when you feel the poke.