Have you ever stubbed your toe? How can something so small hurt so much? Tony Parker’s toe is hurt. For this reason, he did not play for France against the U.S. in the Olympic Basketball competition (good thing too, we only won by three points). We might say that Tony’s toe is his “thorn in the flesh,” particularly if it is a recurring problem. I like to avoid thorns. Don’t you? For that matter, even little sticker burs sometimes get the best of me. Carefully, I pull them from my shoe laces after walking through a field of tall grass. Pain avoidance is one of my specialties.
Thorns are painful. Remember they placed a crown made of thorns on Jesus’ head. Paul, a servant of Jesus, wrote to the Corinthians about the thorn in his flesh. To prevent pride, this thorn, a messenger of Satan tormented Paul. What do Christians do when we hurt? Paul prayed, “Lord take it away.” He asked three times. So God removed it and Paul lived happily ever after. Not exactly. Instead God said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.”
What was Paul’s thorn? Some believe it was an illness, perhaps related to his eyes, because he told the Galatians they would have given him their eyes. Others believe it was some physical infirmity, the result of Paul’s painful experiences on his missionary journeys. Others see it as some painful moment in Paul’s past relationships which would not go away. Even flesh can mean the physical body or something spiritual. Honestly, we just don’t know. Paul doesn’t say. For my part, I’m glad. If we knew that it was psychological, or clinical, we might say, “Well that was Paul’s thorn but mine is worse.” Whatever our thorns are, God’s grace is still sufficient.
We may wrongly believe that we have to be at our best to do well in the Christian life. “Just remove all the obstacles, God, and I will be fine.” But what if he doesn’t? Seminary Professor Jack MacGorman rolled his “r’s” when he enunciated, “The thorn room is just a station on the road to the throne room.” Mark it down: on our journey to Jesus we will likely be formed in the crucible of suffering. But God will not waste our pain. If we could accomplish God’s purpose in our own power, we might forget how desperately we need him today. So we live with our thorns, in full awareness that we are headed for the throne.
