Complicated

READ: PSALM 71:20; 2 CORINTHIANS 1:3-5; 12:5-10

When I was a kid, I thought I had just about everything figured out. God was good. Evil and suffering were a result of sin, not a result of God. But then I got older...

In the middle of my teen years, I began to see the effects of sin a little closer to home. Suffering (and every emotion that came with it) was no longer an abstract idea about the world; it became my world. An event happened in my life that ripped my reality in two. Life suddenly got more complicated.

I felt numb at first. "Did that really just happen?" And then I felt mad. "Why did that just happen!?" Throw in some bitterness, relief, sorrow, and confusion for good measure and you’d have what I was feeling at the time. Doubt flooded my mind. "Am I strong enough to face this?"

It was in this dark period of my life when I rediscovered 2 Corinthians 12:9-10. Paul relays a real and present struggle that torments him. He tells the Corinthians that he repeatedly cried out to God, pleading for his Lord to take the struggle away. Jesus said in reply, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (verse 9).

So Paul embraces his suffering, delighting in his weakness and difficulties. He says, “For when I am weak, then I am strong” (verse 10). How powerful an idea! Paul understood that, because of Jesus’s death and resurrection, we can be honest about our weaknesses and rely on Him for strength.

Applying this concept to my own life, I see that, no, I am not strong enough. My situation is too heavy for me to bear. But Christ is my comforter. He weeps with me. He is my strength when I don’t have any. And He will use my experiences to His glory. And, someday, He will return to get rid of all sin and suffering permanently. • Emma Pamer

• Can you think of a time you felt like a situation was too heavy for you to bear?

• During painful times, Jesus doesn’t sit at the end of the difficult season, waiting for you to catch up with Him. Jesus walks with you and weeps with you. He does not abandon you—and He never will. That is why we can embrace suffering—not because suffering is good (it’s not) but because Jesus Himself endures our suffering with us, giving us comfort and strength.

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 12:9 (NIV)