October 24, 2024
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” … For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses. … For when I am weak, then I am strong.—1 Corinthians 12:9–10
During his last political campaign, American President Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) was shot by a would-be assassin. The surgeon who was treating his wound handed him his steel spectacle case, telling him that it had saved his life. The case, which he had been carrying in his pocket, had broken the force of the bullet and deflected it from hitting his heart. The story is told that as he took the case with the shattered spectacles, Roosevelt commented on how his glasses, which he had considered a handicap, had been the means of saving his life.
We may not know in this life the reasons for the weaknesses or physical disabilities that we endure, but we can be certain that God has promised that all things will work together for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28). History contains stories of many great people who accomplished great things in spite of serious physical challenges or handicaps.
John Milton (1608–1674), who is considered one of the greatest poets of his time, did not compose his most famous work, “Paradise Lost,” until after he had become blind in both eyes. Beethoven (1770–1827) wrote his famous Ninth Symphony after deafness set in at the age of 40. Renoir (1841–1919) painted some of his finest masterpieces with his fingers twisted by rheumatoid arthritis. After Handel (1685–1759) suffered a stroke, leaving his right hand and arm paralyzed, he composed his greatest work, “The Hallelujah Chorus.” Thomas Edison (1847–1931) was deaf when he invented the phonograph. He considered his deafness to be a blessing because it allowed him to think and read with total concentration.
Our disabilities, handicaps, and afflictions can be used by God to bring out the best in us and help us to grow and to fight against the odds so that we can achieve heights of accomplishment we might not have striven for otherwise. The poet Myra Brooks Welch, who wrote the masterpiece “The Touch of the Master’s Hand,” a poem which has blessed many people over time, was confined to a wheelchair due to arthritis. Her hands were disabled, but she wrote poems on a typewriter by pressing the keys with pencil erasers, despite the pain that it caused her.
Charles Eliot (1834–1926), who held the longest term of any president of Harvard University, struggled as a boy with the facial disfigurement with which he was born. His mother told him, “My son, it is not possible for you to get rid of this handicap. We have consulted the best surgeons, and they say that nothing can be done. But it is possible for you, with God’s help, to grow a mind and soul so big that people will forget to look at your face.”
Fanny Crosby (1820–1915), an American mission worker, poet, teacher, and composer of hymns became blind as an infant. She later said: “It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me.” In her lifetime she wrote more than 6,000 hymns, including some of the most famous and best-loved Christian songs of all time. She once said, “When I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior.”
Helen Keller (1880–1968) was born deaf and blind and was unable to communicate until her Christian teacher, Anne Sullivan, taught her not only to read and write but to speak. She became the first deaf blind person in the United States to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. She became an author, disability rights advocate, and public speaker. Helen was a tremendous encouragement to millions of people throughout the world. She once wrote, “I thank God for my handicaps, for through them, I have found myself, my work and my God.” She also wrote, “Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.”
When Joni Eareckson Tada (b. 1949) was 17 years old, she suffered a diving accident that left her paralyzed from the neck down. Joni went on to become an author, radio host, and founder of Joni and Friends, a Christian ministry to the disability community. Her memoir, Joni, which was written while she was in her twenties and detailed how her faith sustained her, has been translated into over thirty languages, bringing hope to millions of readers around the world. During an interview, Joni said, “Everything we do down here on earth has a direct bearing with our capacity for joy and worship and service in Heaven … And I don’t want to waste my suffering. I want to work toward that heavenly goal, that heavenly prize, so I praise God for the wheelchair that keeps pushing me in that heavenly direction.”1
God’s ways can be mysterious and beyond our comprehension, and we don’t always understand the reasons behind everything He does. The Bible says, “My ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8–9). But one thing we can be sure of is that the Lord always has a reason and a purpose for whatever He does or allows in the lives of His children, and that “all things work together for good to those who love God” (Romans 8:28).—Even when it may not always seem to be the case.
The Apostle Paul refers in the Bible to his “thorn in the flesh,” which he asked the Lord to remove from him: “Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh. ... 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” (2 Corinthians 12:7–9).
Although Paul desperately sought the Lord three times to remove this source of pain, instead of removing the affliction, God granted Paul grace and power, and used him to reach people with the gospel and to author much of the New Testament. Through his example, Paul was able to teach us that God’s power is “made perfect in weakness.” While we don’t know the exact nature of Paul’s thorn in the flesh, we can apply his experience to whatever thorn we may personally be struggling with, knowing that God’s grace and power is perfected in our weakness and affliction.
We each struggle with handicaps, afflictions, shortcomings, and weaknesses in this life. But whether our handicaps are big or small or visible to others or personal struggles, we can learn from the Apostle Paul’s teaching: “Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:11–13).
Whatever struggles we may experience, we should never allow these to prevent us from being a witness for Jesus in whatever way we can. As we reflect on people who faced enormous challenges in life, and yet were used of the Lord to reach people with the gospel, we can take courage and even “glory in our infirmities,” so that the power of Christ can rest upon us (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Paul concluded by saying, “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses… For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10). Our weaknesses remind us that “we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). So whatever handicap or disability you may face does not need to be an end of the road, but rather the beginning of a life of reaching out to others with God’s love. “Who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Corinthians 1:4).
No matter what challenges or limitations we face in life, we are blessed to know Jesus, who loves us, cares for us, and “is touched with the feeling of our infirmities” (Hebrews 4:15). In Him, we have the promise of an eternity where God will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and there will be no more pain, suffering, death or sorrow (Revelation 21:4). As we look toward our promised future with God, this gives us courage and hope to not only face the challenges and setbacks of this life, but to allow His strength and grace to be made perfect in us. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (Romans 15:13).
From an article in Treasures, published by the Family International in 1987. Adapted and republished October 2024. Read by Reuben Ruchevsky.
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