Before he met the Lord, Paul was an energetic man who had never aspired to be "weak." But His new relationship with Christ immediately began to change all that. When he was knocked to the ground en-route to Damascus, when he was struck blind and sobered; he was so helpless that he had to be led into the city, the very city which he had intended to conquer. He spent three days waiting and praying till he received his own personal Pentecost.

In the years that followed, Paul again and again faced this uncomfortable reality. Three times he begged the Lord to remove it. Short of the unlikely discovery of some long lost writings from Paul we will probably never know the struggle, the pain, the humility, and even the need to ask for deliverance three times from this "thorn in the flesh".

Like Paul, perhaps we have some troubling "thorn" that we would like taken away. For some of us these might be "thorns" of pride and arrogance; for others, it might be a matter of selfishness, laziness, or some resentment that we just can't remove from under our skin.

Rather than despising these thorns we might look more closely at the example of St. Paul. Perhaps, we too, like to think that we are invincible and in control, but our own thorns remind us of the real situation. When I first came here, on Saturday mornings, I was barely able to walk or do stairs and was in great pain and in search of any kind of solution. Eventually I found the answer in the waters of a therapy pool. That water to me is a powerful symbol of how intimately Jesus takes care of me even if my prayers are not answered immediately.

St. Paul did not attempt to cover up his weakness or to spotlight other strengths; but boasted of his weakness.

Unfortunately we so often see the thorns in our lives as a punishment for something instead of a profound blessing, because they lead us to deeper faith and relationship with Jesus. They open our hearts to help us realize how much we need God.