A Blessed Man

Sorry I've missed a day or two blogging. I'm still recuperating from malaria. I think I held it all in last week so I wouldn't miss teaching any classes, but then when the weekend hit, I basically just collapsed in a heap. I've been reading and resting, trying to regain my strength. I read four books this weekend, which is always nice; it's amazing how much reading you can do when you find yourself flat on your back.

But lying around is not like me; nor is feeling weak and helpless. It's as if God needed to teach me a lesson I've been too hard-headed to learn. Namely, that this whole mission isn't about my strength, stamina or ability. God always chooses those who are inadequate in and of themselves to accomplish his purposes so that the ultimate glory goes to him. When we serve out of our weakness and God's strength, it is obvious to everyone that God did whatever gets done, and not the strength or wisdom of man that accomplished the task. That's what the Apostle Paul was talking about when he penned these words, "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults and hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor. 12:9-10).

It is certainly no fun being sick away from home, but if God needed to bring me 6,000 miles and then allow me to contract a tropical disease to get my attention, it will definitely be to my benefit in the end. And so tonight as I retire I cry out with the Psalmist, "O Lord Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you" (Psalm 84:12).