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Strong in Broken Places
Read 2 Corinthians 12:1-10.
 As a child growing up in Kansas, I was inspired by the story of a fellow Kansan, Glenn Cunningham. When he was eight, his legs were so badly burned, that the doctors proposed amputation. His mother would not hear of it. After six long months in the hospital, a series of extensive skin grafts, and endless hours of massaging by his mother’s loving hands, Glenn began to walk, and then to run, to strengthen his legs. He ran, and he ran, and ran until, at age 25, he ran straight into the world record for the fastest mile–a record he was to hold for many years.
Cunningham’s story provides a positive illustration of the truth of Ernest Hemingway’s words: The world breaks everyone, and afterward many are strong in broken places.” The Apostle Paul adds that out of our weakness God’s grace can create strength.
Sooner or later we are all broken. Defeat, disappointment, sorrow, illness, broken bodies and spirits are the common lot of us all. But Hemingway and Paul talk not only of our common vulnerability in being broken; they remind us, too, that we can later become strong in broken places. Our weakness can become our strength. Where trouble and suffering are concerned, you and I, like young Glenn, have the power not only to confront and endure them; we can use them constructively and creatively.
Note, I said we can use them, not that we necessarily do use them. Many are strong in the broken places–not all. Some become embittered. Others are overcome by self-pity, and some become full of resentment. But there are those who inspire us, because in the soil of suffering, they grow compassion and kindness, fortitude and patience, understanding and humility, faith and hope. These are the strengths that can grow and ripen from the dark seeds of pain and weakness.
Prayer: God of grace, You are sufficient for all my needs. Make me strong in my weak places, I pray, and give me strength to endure. I want to give You all the glory! Amen.
| Jim Elland
Pastor
West Alameda Community Baptist Church
Lakewood, CO
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