Thorns in the flesh

Recently I have been thinking about the passages in the Bible that talk about Paul and the thorn in his flesh. There are many opinions of what exactly this thorn was: bad eyesight, another sickness or something completely different. The last two months I have had continual problems with my eyes. I have had symptoms of pink eye that doesn’t go away no matter what I try – new contacts, wearing glasses, medication, etc nothing works. It has been my “thorn” and I can’t get rid of it.  

A few weeks ago while driving to work at the normal 7:52am hour. In front of me in the road, or rather the path the Congolese (and us) use as a road stood an old lady bent over almost at 180° trying to manage her skirt falling down with one hand and her walking stick with the other. Travelling back and forth between the house and office, we see this elderly lady almost daily. She has been affectionately been termed “Grandma” and everyone knows who you are talking about.

After a few minutes a kind pedestrian added Grandma with her skirt and escorted her out of the middle of the road so we could pass. I began to think that the thorn in my flesh isn’t so prickly. We also pass this lady every day and you sort of become immune or jaded to what pain she must experience on a daily basis hunched over. You just don’t think about. It’s normal.

After experiencing this I was interested in what the Bible really says about Paul’s thorn. Doing a bit of research, I found out that maybe Paul didn’t have a physical sickness or rather his thorn was something else. Some Bible commentaries suggest that Paul’s thorn was the amount of “light” he was given and responsibility that carried in furthering the gospel message. The interesting thing is that it never seemed like Paul’s thorn ever went away, it was something he lived with for a long time. He felt obligated to continue his work despite everything he went through, the suffering he endured.

So perhaps after all my thorn (eyes) isn’t the same as Paul’s as I initially thought. However if Paul’s thorn really was the responsibility he felt for carrying the gospel message, well then, I could possible relate. Living in working in Congo often carries an obligation to advocate. You witness so many human rights violations, corruption, and injustices. It is hard to be silent. As my profession is the minority of my social circle, this type of environment provokes a feeling of responsibility or personal guilt in the need to share the realities.

While reading the passages about Paul’s thorn, he suffered so much as a result: beatings, imprisonment, abandonment, and finally his life. I can’t say that my thorn hasn’t inflected such pain to the same degree. Paul is a model of perseverance and commitment, one example I can draw strength from on those days that Congo is hard to handle or feel like life is beating me up. I imagine that Paul’s thorn helped him achieve many great things to the glory of God.