The Magic Bullet

Recently I read a blog written by a woman who lost 32 pounds by incorporating an intense diet and exercise regime into her life. Several readers, encouraged by her success, left comments on her site. One reader wrote she is on the same plan, attempting to shed her own unwanted pounds. She wrote: “I never realized how burdened I was— and not just by pounds. I was also so weighed down mentally and spiritually by doubting I could ever truly find victory in this struggle.”

This woman’s quest for a final solution for her excess pounds got me thinking. We are all searching for that magic bullet, the one solution that will allow us to claim a once-and-for-all victory over the difficulties in our lives. We want to end the struggle for good. But does a magic bullet really exist?

Paul had an issue he wanted to lay to rest forever. He called it a “thorn in the flesh”. Commentators guess at the source of Paul’s pain: maybe it was an incessant temptation to sin, or opponents trying to damage his reputation, or even chronic health issues, like eye problems or malaria. We will never know what specifically Paul was describing. We do know that no amount of prayer was effective in making the problem go away.

God had bigger things in mind for Paul. The struggle itself would teach him valuable things about the Lord and qualitatively deepen his relationship with Him. Paul would need this knowledge in the difficult years ahead.

So rather than remove the problem, God gave a different answer to Paul’s prayers. Definitely not what Paul was hoping to hear! “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness,” the Lord answered Paul. The original word translated here as “sufficient,” carries with it the idea of being enough. His grace may not be all we want in a circumstance, but it will supply all we need.

We most effectively learn to trust God by personally experiencing his faithfulness. So while Paul was upheld and enabled by grace, the thorn was allowed to remain.

The experience proved to be effective in Paul’s life. Several years after writing about his thorn in the flesh, Paul wrote the Philippians, “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am…I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” God’s grace had proved sufficient even in the presence of a thorn’s never-ending irritation.

Paul learned another valuable lesson: the power of God is most effectively displayed in our weaknesses. We do not tend to embrace this concept. Rather than accepting our limitations and trusting God to work through the circumstance, we search for the quick fix or the steps to success. Books like “Your Best Life Ever” are jumping off the shelves into the hands of those hunting for the magic bullet to living a “successful” life. We all hate pain.

But as Wesley told Princess Buttercup in The Princess Bride: “Life is pain, Princess. Anyone who tells you different is selling something.”

There is no magic bullet in the struggle because life is about the struggle. Author Leigh McLeroy once remarked that in literature, the conflict in a story is not an interruption to the plot. Rather, the conflict is the plot. When the conflict resolves, the book comes to an end.

So I guess my struggle with weight will continue until the Lord calls me home. So will my never-ending attempts to discipline my tongue and keep a godly attitude. And I’m willing to bet that traveling the Narrow Road will probably not get any easier during my time on this earth.

As Paul learned to do, we must embrace the struggle. For in it we will learn an ever-deepening understanding about the faithfulness and the goodness of God. His grace will be enough to carry us through the pain and enable us to be content in the circumstance. And through it all, the glory of God will be revealed, both to us and through us.

“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”
2 Corinthians 4:17