Daily Devotional

One of my classroom teacher routines that I introduced a few years ago is to have a daily quote on the board (followed by a couple of “dad jokes”) that I read in the beginning of class.  Many are insights relating to motivation or integrity, and some give a slight nod to wisdom from scripture.

One recent quote on my board was one by the poet Robert Frost: “The best way out is always through”.  As I thought upon it throughout the day, it seemed to ring together with the above passage from 2 Corinthians.  Here’s Paul, beseeching the Lord for relief, a way out from this “thorn”, and yet finding the ultimate answer after enduring through with God’s grace.  Easy enough comparison, right?  But after a little digging, there is actually some important insight in the contrast.

If you look up the source of the quote attributed to Frost, it actually comes from one of his poems.  The poem is a dramatic monologue spoken by a rural New England housewife, who is reaching a psychological breaking point due to isolation, relentless domestic labor, and a history of mental illness.  The quote actually comes from her husband, who uses it to encourage her to keep working through her exhaustion (similar to a “suck it up, buttercup”).  Pushing through purely on grit and self-reliance, yet disconnected from God’s purpose or grace, the poem has more of a tragic, fatalistic feel rather than something instructive or motivational.
 
Paul describes moments of distress for him and his companions throughout his ministry: “we were troubled on every side, fightings without, and terrors within” (2 Cor. 7:5, GNV).  Regarding the “thorn in the flesh”, this indicated a very personal struggle.  Some have speculated that it could refer to a physical ailment relating to his eyes or other chronic condition.  Others seem to think that it was more related to the opposition and betrayal he felt from those undermining his call as an apostle to preach the gospel of grace.  He learned, quite possibly in retrospect, that the Lord was allowing him to be humbled through it.  It’s reasonable to think that those three prayers to take the thorn away were at three times when he was at absolute low moments.  

Paul’s description gives echoes of Gethsemane, where Christ also asked three times for the cup to pass, but ultimately said, “Not my will, but Thine be done”.  Those times of suffering and isolation we face, and at times, God’s divine “No” can be echoes of this as well.  The thorn, like a miniature “cross” to be borne, was God’s lesson to Paul of identification with Christ.  When we ask to know Christ more, could we truly say like Paul that we want to know more “the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings”? (Phil. 3:10).

The world’s mantras like “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” are but an empty shadow of God’s wisdom, and ultimately promote self-reliance instead of God-submission.  May we seek rather to rely on God’s sufficient grace.  One expanded translation puts the verse this way: “My grace is enough for you, for power is moment by moment coming to its full energy and complete operation in the sphere of weakness.”

Perhaps Robert Frost’s quote could be rephrased?  The best way through is always out - that is out of self, and into Him:

“Out of unrest and arrogant pride,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
into Thy blessed will to abide,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of myself to dwell in Thy love,
out of despair into raptures above,
upward for aye on wings like a dove,
Jesus, I come to Thee.”
 

New International Version (NIV)
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