1 Corinthians 10:13 is one of the passages that people might quote to you when you are going through a difficult time. Whatever problem we may face, be it grieving, or financial troubles or family troubles or illness. People might seek to console us by paraphrasing this passage and saying, “Just remember, God never tests us beyond our ability.” There is nothing wrong with that. Even in that simple paraphrased version of the passage we may find great solace.
However, there is bit more complexity in this little verse and it is worth exploring more carefully.
The first thing we may notice is that the Apostle Paul refers to what ever trouble or temptation we may face as “testing.” We might not like the idea that God tests us as if God is some kind of teacher or professor grading our performance in life. We might object especially to the idea that God uses the suffering of others to test us. For instance, how can God use the destructive, lifestyle choices of a teenage son, to test his parent’s faith? That is a disturbing idea. However, if we do not focus on God as the cause of our suffering, and get into a theological blame game, we may find it possible to use challenging times in life as opportunities to grow in our faith.
For all the many sins and behaviors that Paul discusses in his letters the most central one and probably the one the gets the least attention is idolatry. The belief that some thing is the source of our peace, joy and serenity. We can make idols out of health, people, substances, material possessions; any thing other than the invisible God, that we believe will save us. For Paul, that is the ultimate spiritual pivot point. Everything in the spiritual life turns on our ability to let go of our attachments to the things and people in this life and trust more fully in God. It actually has some similarities to Buddhists thought. The Four Noble Truths of the Buddha say that Life is filled with suffering. The origin of suffering in life is attachments to things (or in Judeo-Chrisitan terms idolatry). The cessation of suffering is attainable. The path to release involves letting go of our attachments (or as Christians would say trusting in God alone). The difficult situations that life throw at us will test our ability to let go or our attachments and trust in God. Whether God is the source of the challenge is not as important for our growth as learning to let go of our attachments as part of the solution.
But, Paul then takes the idea of testing and offers a way of thinking about our challenges that is intended to lead us out of self pity and into the constructive work of letting go and having faith. He say, “No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone.” In other words, he suggests that we take ourselves out of the center of our universe and put things in perspective.
Having a 10 year old and a 5 year old, I often hear the complaint “That’s not fair.” Why does she get to do that special treat and not me? Why does he get to do that activity and not me?” As a parent with a broader perspective on the lives of both children and who gets what and gets to do what, I don’t claim to know whether a particular event is fair or not, but, I do know that their perspective is even more limited than mine. In the same way we are God’s children and only God knows what is really fair. When we are in the midst of suffering we may want to cry out with the words of the spiritual, “nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen!” Paul suggests that everyone knows the trouble we’ve seen. All suffering is common suffering.
That might feel like a little too much of a philosophical leap when we are hurting. If so, there are other strategies that lead us out of self pity. For instance we can at least think the opposite: that there is probably somebody worse off than us. However bad we have it, someone probably has it worse. Or to phrase that positively, count your blessing. As the old hymn says, “When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed, When you are discouraged thinking all is lost. Count your many blessings, name them one by one, count your many blessings see what God has done.”
These are all good strategies for dealing with our tendency to wallow in our problems. We can remember that everybody suffers. We can remember that there are people suffering more than us. We can count our blessings.
From here Paul offers another idea. He says, “that God will not test us beyond our strength to endure but will provide a way out so that we may endure.” That last phrase is peculiar. He does not say God will provide a way out so we don’t have to endure the suffering anymroe, but a way out so that we may continue to endure. A way out indicates an escape, the end of suffering, salvation from our problems. But, Paul says it is a way out so that we may endure. I was so curious about this I got out my Greek lexicon from seminary and looked up the words “way out” and “endure”. Endure is upethero and there is not much wiggle room in the meaning. Upethero means endure or submit to. Again if there is a way out of suffering you would think you would not have to submit to it. But the word translated “Way out”, ekbasin has an interesting alternate meaning. It can mean a successful outcome. So that God will provide a successful outcome to our struggle so that we do not have to endure it.
Often times when we are suffering we get locked into an all or nothing, win or lose mentality against our hardship whatever it may be. I need to be rid of this thing entirely or I can’t move forward. I need to defeat this illness or this job loss or this injustice and there is really no alternative. My life cannot go on with this problem in it. But, often there can be a successful outcome that we had not considered. There can be a successful outcome that does not give us exactly what we want, but gives us the resources to manage the struggle.
I read a story recently about an 86 year old woman, in a nursing home her name was Clara. Her children and grandchildren who had lived in town and visited often, moved to another part of the country. They wrote often, but Clara had never been the same after they moved. She was filled with self pity. She was angry and aggressive toward the staff. When staff came she would throw things at them and then break down sobbing. Things were particularly bad on the days when she did not get a letter from her family. Clara was certainly being tested. She had a profound and understandable attachment to her family. And her inability to let that go even a little was causing tremendous suffering. The activity directory of the home was determined to help Clara. He tried everything he could think of to get her out of her room and engaged but she was either unresponsive or aggressive toward all attempts at help. One day someone came by with a box of baseball caps which included a blue cap that said “US Mail”. The ten-year old son of one of the nurses, a boy named Stephen put in on and said, “look everybody, I’m a mailman!” Immediately, the activity director had an idea. He recruited Stephen to be the mailman for the day and it just so happened to be a day when Clara had received a letter from her family. Stephen took the letter right to Clara’s room. Walked in and said, “Ms. Clara, I’ve got mail for you.” The staff all stood out of sight at the room door listening. Clara responded, “Oh my, what have we hear? Aren’t you a dear. What grade are you in?”
Stephen replied, “fourth grade”
“Oh,” She responded, “I taught school for 40 years.”
“Wow.” Said stephen, “I’d sure hate to be in school that long.” In minutes they were laughing and giggling together.
Then Clara said, “Stephen would your read my letter for me?” As Stephen began reading Clara sat smiling and for the first time in a long time, she was happy.
When Stephen got ready to leave he said, “I’ll come back tomorrow if you get another letter.”
Clara responded, “You don’t have to wait for me to get mail. You can come anytime. You know I have a grandson about your age.”
“You do?”
“Yes, but he lives a long way away and I don’t see him much anymore.”
“That’s sad.” Said Stephen, “I miss my grandmother too. She died last year.”
“I’m sorry, Stephen, well, you can come visit me anytime.”
In the days to come Stephen did visit and Clara quite throwing things at the staff and she stopped crying in her room.
A week later, the activity director was in his office when he heard a knock at the door and in walked Stephen pushing Clara in wheelchair. Both were wearing “U.S. Mail” caps.
“We ‘re off to deliver the mail” she said. And off they went chanting, “Through rain, sleet and snow…”
Stephen and Clara became a common sight. When they weren’t delivering mail, Clara helped Stephen with homework and Stephen even taught her to play Nintendo.
God did not change Clara’s problem. Her family and grandchildren still lived on the other side of the country and she still missed them. But, God did provide her a successful outcome to her suffering. Another way to put it might be that God did not provide her a way out of her suffering. God provided her a way through. And typical of God’s work the way through involved the helping and companionship of another human being.
This is how we may be different from Buddhist. We don’t think that a lone Christian can overcome hardship and suffering with lots of prayer and meditation and a simple resolve to let go of attachments. We think that people come together to bear one another’s burdens and that helps us let go, that helps us have faith. We detach from our attachments by sharing our burdens. Reaching out to the suffering or reaching for help when we are suffering, we find that burdens are lighter when they are shared. In this way God does not test us beyond our strength, because God provides others to help carry our burdens when they get to heavy. God does not provide a way out. God provides a way through.
