My kids tease me about a small sign on the kitchen shelf which says, “This home runs on love, laughter and strong coffee.” It’s a silly cliché but true: I love my family, and they make me laugh (most of the time), which really motivates me. Laughter is definitely good medicine, and I’m convinced coffee is too since I can’t seem to live without it – as long as it’s strong, with a splash of sweet cream.
Our culture seems to run on tropes, mottos and trite bromides. Cute household signs are one thing, but empty platitudes that fail the common-sense test are another. Many popular slogans offer nonsensical advice such as, “you can be anything you want to be” (anything?), “follow your bliss” (what if that’s heroin?), and “manifest it into existence” (try manifesting someone back from the dead). Here’s another: “God will never give me more than I can handle.” But…is that true? Think of the daily headlines; the world is obviously dealing with unbearable suffering. I only have to consider those in my immediate circle who are handling very heavy burdens: a difficult diagnosis, unspeakable abuse, loss of a child, etc. These situations break us; they are indeed more than we can handle.
Perhaps this phrase refers to the way God helps us during times of temptation, described in 1 Corinthians 10:13 (ESV), “God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” But the phrase is typically used in the context of suffering, not temptation. Then I get stuck on the words “God will never” – is it boasting a certain naïve confidence that God would not allow terrible things of a certain caliber? But in fact, God does allow extreme suffering and never promised otherwise.
To borrow another popular cliché, scripture portrays suffering as “a feature, not a bug” – it’s everywhere. We learn from Job how to be faithful while suffering and that we don’t need to be afraid to express our concerns to God; we can trust in His sovereign plan even when we don’t understand it. “Though He slay me, yet will I hope in him.” – Job 13:15
We see in Psalm 34:18 how God is with us when we cry out to Him: “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” In Psalm 88:1-3, Heman the Ezrahite expressed desperate need: “O Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out day and night before you. Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry! For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.” In Isaiah 53:3 we see Jesus portrayed as someone who can relate with our suffering as “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief,” and in Hebrews 4:15, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses.”
The apostle Paul admitted to very difficult trials and persecution in 2 Corinthians 4:8-10, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.”
Paul even boasted in his suffering: because his weakness caused him to lean on Christ’s strength instead of his own, the power of Christ could work through him: “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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).
I love this Bible commentary from David Guzik of Enduring Word: “Paul was desperate in his desire to find relief from this burden, but there are two ways of relief. It can come by removing the load or by strengthening the shoulder that bears the load. Instead of taking away the thorn, God strengthened Paul under it, and God would show His strength through Paul’s apparent weakness. To do this, Paul had to believe that God’s grace is sufficient. We really don’t believe God’s grace is sufficient until we believe we are insufficient. For many of us, especially in American culture, this is a huge obstacle. We are the people who idolize the “self-made man” and want to rely on ourselves. But we can’t receive God’s strength until we know our weakness. We can’t receive the sufficiency of God’s grace until we know our own insufficiency.”
So that trite saying is not exactly true, because God actually does give us more than we can handle on our own. Then we can look to Him for guidance, rely on Him to meet our needs and trust Him to work all things out for His purposes. When we depend on God for strength as we suffer through our circumstances, we can receive His grace and allow Him to work through us; then Christ’s power is able to accomplish its purpose, and we have the opportunity to glorify Him.
In 2 Corinthians 4:17, Paul reminds us that our present suffering prepares us for future glory: “this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” And in Philippians 3:8, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.”
Heavenly Father, help us share Paul’s confidence that no suffering can ever diminish the joy of heaven which awaits, or the immeasurable worth of knowing You. Amen.
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