thorn in the flesh

during our bible study today, we discussed 2 Corinthians 12 - paul's inference to being caught up to a *third heaven* and how God provided him with a *thorn in the flesh* to keep him humbled, and finally, the Lord speaking to paul saying, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness."

this all came about because curious penni had to ask "what do you think paul's thorn was?" a question i have pondered throughout the ages. one of my wise and scholarly friends said, "it doesn't matter - it was his thorn..." i was taken aback, but when discussion ensued, i was totally blown away that God has individualized our thorns so that while mine are of course more overwhelming than someone else's (j/k, really), theirs may be just as overwhelming to them on the same level - brings it right back to the basic *who are we to judge anything, anyway?*

i must admit, i walked away from it with a totally different concept of the the paradox of suffering - how we are "individual creations never repeated" and that our thorns are just that - ours - and we cannot and should not compare ourselves to others in relation to what they are or are not suffering - that Jesus meets us whereever we are, at the present time; truly grace for the moment.

we as a people are detached from our own suffering and really need to let the sufficiency of God's grace work for us in our lives, right now, right where we are. speaking for myself, i find myself doing this when i should be offering it as a prayer for someone and bearing up like a mighty, mighty soldier. today, in fact, i sent an email to my friend and revealed i had a cortisone injection into my elbow for a tendonitis flare-up and she said a quick prayer to "...use her suffering from the pain in her arm to ease the pain in others left by Bruce's passing..."

i am all like "yeah, amen - i can do this!" but at the first twinge of *oh, THIS REALLY FLIPPIN' HURTS* all the *amens* are out the window and i am being a big baby. thank you Lord for meeting me where i am. especially since i am so weak and mortified at my own humanness it's not even funny...

thoughts?