When I am Weak, Then I am Strong
Anna Hicks // UGA Student & Communications Intern
One of the biggest lessons I’ve had to learn is that God can take the most difficult circumstances and use them for His glory. In my life, this has looked like an arc in my story that I never would have written for myself, but that He ended up turning into an opportunity to share the greatest Story ever written. Let me explain.
When I was five, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had to have surgery to remove it. By God’s grace, the doctor was able to get rid of the tumor completely and it has never come back. Unfortunately, due to complications from the surgery, sometimes pressure builds up in my brain and I must have emergency surgery. This always happens at random and has happened seven times over the past thirteen years. Although the symptoms are clear enough that we always know to go to the hospital when it happens, I have to live with the fact that if we don’t catch it before the pressure builds up too much, things could go really bad for me really fast. Knowing this could happen any day makes things like moving away from my parents and going overseas on my own difficult, scary, and in some cases logistically impossible. Living with this hanging over my head certainly isn’t easy, and when I have to go in for surgery it can be hard to see how any good can come of the situation at all.
In the New Testament, Paul calls his own recurring trial the “thorn in his flesh.”
“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.” 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Although the New Testament doesn’t say specifically what Paul’s thorn is, we can be sure it was something unpleasant, something he pleaded to have taken away. Yet this passage also shows us an example of the godly way to respond to these trials. When Paul pleaded for his thorn to be taken away, God’s answer was “no.” But instead of complaining and trying to find a way to get rid of his thorn on his own, Paul said he would boast gladly in his weakness - even delight in his weakness. The automatic response to difficulties in our world today is not to delight in them. So how does Paul do it? The answer is there in the first verse - “[God’s] power is made perfect in weakness.” When we are weak, our inability to deal with our own difficulties proves that God alone is powerful. Our trials and hardships are opportunities for us to give God the glory and boast in HIS power instead of our own. Serving God through our difficulties looks like taking our sorrow and hurt and turning them around into awe and wonder at the power of a God who, when we are weak, remains strong.
In my story, this mindset switch came in the form of an incredible opportunity during my church’s mission trip to Bogotá, Colombia. Our team had to write stories through which we could share the gospel, and as I tried to brainstorm a topic for the story I would share, the Lord put my own story on my heart. As I sat down at the table to write it out, the elements of my story and the gospel narrative started falling into place side by side, leaving me awestruck at how the Lord had been working in my life without me even realizing it.
In my story, I was born with a sickness that I couldn’t do anything about on my own, one that would eventually kill me if nothing was done about it. In the same way, every one of us is born with a terrible sickness called sin, which we are helpless to fix on our own, and which will result in eternal death if nothing is done about it.
In my story, my doctor offered me a solution to my sickness - he could take away the tumor for good. God offers us a solution to our sin disease when he extends to us the gift of salvation, and just like I accepted my doctor’s offer and was healed of my tumor, if we accept the gift of salvation God will forgive us of our sins - past, present, and future - leaving us healed.
However, just because I am healed of my tumor doesn’t mean I don’t suffer from its effects. The problems resulting from the tumor are something I’ll have to deal with until I die, but I know that if I go to my doctor he is willing and able to fix it for me. Similarly, as long as we are living on this fallen earth we as Christians will have to deal with the effects of sin on our bodies, minds, and spirits. However, if we have accepted the gift of salvation we can have confidence that we can come to the Father and he has already forgiven us completely and freely!
In Colombia, I was able to share this story - my story - with the people as a method of sharing the gospel with them. Although only God knows how He used it to work in the hearts of the people who heard it, I know for sure that the Lord used that experience to change my own heart. Before writing my story, I struggled to see how my medical challenges were something that the Lord could use for good - how could something that caused me and those around me so much pain bring Him glory? But when God said “no” to Paul’s pleas for relief from the thorn in his flesh, Paul found out that in his own weakness, the strength of God was made more evident in his life. Through writing my story, the Lord showed me how one of the most difficult parts of my own story is actually such a gift because I can use it to share the most important story - the story of the gospel.
Please don’t hear me saying that if you give your trials to God it will make them any easier. Jesus told his followers in John 16:33,
“In this world you will have troubles. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
Just because we choose to trust God with our troubles and use them to glorify Him doesn’t mean that they are going to go away. Paul had to deal with the thorn in his flesh for the rest of his life, and my doctors might not ever figure out how to completely get rid of the complications from my tumor. But what it does mean is that we can have confidence that even when we can’t see how, God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. When trials and tribulations come our way and the thorns in our flesh seem too hard to bear, we can choose to count it all joy and with Paul claim that “when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Anna is a second year English and intended Public Relations double-major at UGA. She started attending Watkinsville FBC consistently in January. She serves as a Communications Intern this school year and is in the Jones tribe. She is excited to see how the Lord uses her to serve His people this year at Watkinsville!
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