Knocked Down, But Not Out!

Genesis 40:1-23

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

            It was one of those phone calls that you dread; the one that is not bound by the limits of conventional time.  The one that usually comes late at night or first thing in the morning when you least expect it.  

I remember it well.  It was the summer of ‘85.  My Pop-Pop woke up that morning at my Aunt’s house at the shore unable to breathe; he couldn’t catch his breath.  He was in the hospital in critical condition.  We drove all night to arrive at my Aunt’s early the next morning. 

He was diagnosed with emphysema.  I guess it was all those cigarettes he smoked since his youth.  He had tried to quit numerous times, but this time it was for real. 

For the next fourteen years my Pop-Pop struggled with this condition.  His life changed a great deal.  I remember the loud, painful coughing in our guest room when they visited.  He stopped playing golf altogether.  He started to exercise at the rehab hospital three times a week per doctor’s orders.  These exercises kept him going and kept his spirit strong.  It gave him a few more years with us.

Over those years his health slowly deteriorated.  He eventually was on oxygen 24/7.  He was so weak in the final months that he couldn’t get out of bed without a lot of help.  In the fall of ’99 he went to be with the Lord.  We were sad to see him go, but we were also relieved.  He had suffered so much pain and hardship during those fourteen years with emphysema.  It was the “thorn” in his flesh he could not brush off.  He could have given up and given in to it years before.  But he persevered for those many years without complaining despite his condition.  He remained positive and upbeat through this struggle.  He believed that he may have been knocked down, but he was not out.

In our scripture readings this morning we hear about two individuals who are knocked down, but not out.  Joseph is wrongly imprisoned for a crime he did not commit involving the wife of an Egyptian official named Potiphar.  She cried wolf, made false accusations against Joseph and he was thrown into prison.  While in prison, God gives Joseph the ability to interpret the dreams of two fellow prisoners.  They were Egyptian officials who lost favor with Pharoah.  After some time, the two officials, one the chieft cupbearer for Pharoah, were released.  Joseph asked the cupbearer to advocate for him to Pharoah for his release from prison.  Unfortunately, he forgot all about Joseph and never mentioned him to Pharoah.

Joseph was a forgotten man.  He was stuck in prison with no hope for getting out.  But God never forgot about him.  God was with him.  Joseph was knocked down, but not out.

The Apostle Paul writes a second letter to the people of the Corinth church.  He writes that he will not boast of himself, although other leaders did.  He will only boast in other people and of extraordinary circumstances.  If he DOES boast of himself, he will boast of his weaknesses.  He wishes to remain humble in the Lord. 

Paul confesses that he’s been given a “thorn” in the flesh to prevent him from becoming “too elated” and boastful of himself.  Scholars have debated over what this “thorn” was exactly.  It may have been migrane headaches, regular attacks of a malarial fever, a physical aliment that left him disfigured, or any number of things that would cause him pain, hardship and suffering day after day.  Whatever the “thorn” was, it’s purpose Paul believed was to keep him grounded in his faith and dependent on God for the strength and courage he needed.  Paul says he prayed to God to take it away from him, but God answered that prayer as he answers so many prayers – he did not take the “thorn” away, but gave Paul strength to bear it.  That is how God works.  If I pray for patience, does God give me patience or does he give me the opportunity to be patient.  God does not spare us from our difficulties, but makes us able to overcome them.  This is what grace is all about.

God says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”  It is the grace of God that empowers Paul to overcome physical weariness from his travels and physical pain from whatever aliment he had.  God’s grace also gave him the strength to confront and stand firm against any opposition and able to face the slander and false judgments so many false teachers claimed.

Unless I’ve missed my guess, is there someone here today who has their own “thorn” they’re wrestling with?  Is there someone here today who’s had the wind knocked out of your sails by life?  Is there someone here today living a “life of quiet desperation”, as Henry David Thoreau put it?

How many times have each of us found ourselves wide awake in the middle of a nightmare; overwhelmed by what’s before us.  And too often we try to deal with it ourselves, through our own strength and courage, and sooner or later come to realize this is an exercise in futility.  We get in our own way and that’s self-defeating.  We don’t allow the power of Christ to give us the strength we need. 

In Galatians 2:20, Paul expresses our relationship with God this way, “I have been crucified with Christ, therefore it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”  When we get ourselves out of our own way, we make room for the power and strength of Christ to live in us.  Then the things we say and do in faith come from the risen Christ.  “For when I am weak, then I am strong.”  When I humble myself and put my “self” aside, it allows for the strength of God to live through me.  And he’ll live through you, too.

This is the confidence we have as Christians that when life knocks us down, we are not out; we are not forgotten.  We have a God who claims us as his own children as we suffer with our Risen Lord.  He doesn’t take the difficulties away, but he gives us the confidence, strength and courage needed to conqueror them. 

Former Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop said, “We grow and mature spiritually through adversity – not when everything is going smoothly…in a time of adversity or trouble, the Christian has the opportunity to know God in a special and personal way.” 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The ultimate measure of someone is not where they stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but where they stand at times of challenge and controversy.”

God in Christ does not leave us to our suffering, but gives us the means to persevere through it.  As Dr. Koop and Dr. King described, God knows that the challenges, sufferings, and adversities of life force us to come to grips with who we are, including who we are in Christ.

So what are you suffering through?  What is the challenge before you?  What tensions are brewing?  A pending divorce?  Lost a job?   Bankruptcy?  An extra-marital affair?  Or coming to grips with the repressed memories of a less than perfect childhood?

On the journey we call life and faith, we all lose our way, but because of Christ death and resurrection, we are confident we will get back up again to shine God’s grace into the world.  It’s never too late to get back up again and to finish the race God has put before us.

Recall with a major highlight of the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona.  In Track and Field, Britain’s Derek Redmond was going for gold in the 400-meters.  He had the top qualifying time in the quarter finals.  His dream was in sight as the gun sounded in the semifinals. He was running the race of his life.  When suddenly he felt a sharp pain go up the back of his leg.  He fell face first onto the track with a torn right hamstring. Sports Illustrated recorded the dramatic event: As the medical attendants were approaching, Redmond fought to his feet. “It was animal instinct,” he would say later. He set out hopping, in a crazed attempt to finish the race. When he reached the stretch, a large man in a T-shirt came out of the stands, hurled aside a security guard and ran to Redmond, embracing him. It was his father, Jim Redmond. “You don’t have to do this,” he told his weeping son. “Yes, I do,” said Derek. “Well, then,” said Jim, “we’re going to finish this together.”  And they did. Fighting off more security officers, with the son’s head sometimes buried in his father’s shoulder, they stayed in Derek’s lane all the way to the end.  When he crossed the finish line, the crowd rose and howled and wept.  Derek didn’t walk away with the gold medal, but he walked away with an incredible memory of a father who, when he saw his son in pain, left his seat in the stands to help him finish the race.

            This is the grace of God.  We all get knocked down, but we’re not out.  God gives us the strength to bear it and deal with it.  Joseph was forgotten for two years in prison when he interprets one of Pharoah’s dreams and becomes one of his high ranking officials.  We all have a “thorn” in our flesh of some kind like the Apostle Paul.  Such thorns humble us and remind us that with God’s grace in our lives, whenever we are weak, it is God who makes us strong.

            So get up.  Get up from wherever you find yourself, in whatever situation you are in.  Get up from drowning in the pit of despair.  Get up  from wallowing in self-pity!  Get up from feeling sorry for yourself!  Get up, stand tall and stare down the memories that haunt you and the challenges you carry on your shoulders.

            You’ve been knocked down, but you’re not out of the race.  God hasn’t given up on you.  God wants to help you.  God wants to pick you up and help you cross the finish line.  For in the end we believe suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope and hope does not disappoint us. (Romans 5:3-5)  Mrs. Helen Keller once said, “It’s only through trial and suffering that the soul is strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” 

            It’s never too late to get back up again, for one day you will shine again.