The Testing That Is Common To All Of Us - October 17, 2010

Daily Lectionary Readings for October 17, 2010
Psalm 119:121-144
Micah 1:1-9
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
Matthew 16:13-20

1 Corinthians 10:1-13
"No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone.  God is faithful, and he willl not let you be treated beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it."(v.13)
One of the truisms that often pass the lips of people of faith is that God will not give us a weight so heavy that we are not able to carry it.  This must be one of the bedrock pieces of the foundation of such sayings.  The passage is a series of reminders of those who have not been faithful in the past and from whose example we are to learn.  What I find most helpful here is not the fact that God won't ask more of me than I can endure.  God knows me far better than I know myself so I don't reallyfind this all that surprising.  I'd surely ask very little of myself, with a low expectation of what I might be able to take.  What really speaks to me in this verse is the beginning sentence.  "No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone."  Our suffering is not unique to us.  It is not some punishment visited upon one of us that the rest of us do not have to deal with.  Pain is common.  It's fundamentally a part of our human experience.  And somehow I suspect that the joys and the pleasures of life don't work without the testing that is common to all of us.  The testing tha tis common to all of us is a constant remidner that something larger is going on and that God's plan is ever unfolding.  And how awesome, if at times difficult and troubling, to be a part of that unfolding reality.

Preached this morning on the 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 passage.  Second of a three sermon set called "Letter To A Friend" and reflecting on Paul's advice to his protege Timothy and how it applies not only to Timothy, but to us.  This morning was titled "There Is A Truth" and was built around Pauls counsel that Timothy hold fast to the truth of Scripture, remembeing who he had learned it from and what the message of Scripture spoke to him.  There are many doctrines that may sound more appealing, comfortable and may be offered as alternatives or modifications of the truth he encountered in Scripture.  He is to be wary of such things.  So are we.