A Lesson Learned

When I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:10

If you had happened to be in Bangalore Airport one Thursday morning a few weeks ago you might have seen a grey-haired man being ferried around in a wheel-chair, accompanied by some extremely efficient medical people and some extremely anxious-looking friends. You might have given him a brief thought: “Poor old bloke, I wonder what’s wrong with him. Not much fun being taken ill in a place like this...” And then, very naturally, got on with your own business.

Well, that poor old bloke was me. I had had a case of Bangalore Belly for a couple of days and had brought the experience to a dramatic climax by keeling over in the duty-free shop. As it turned out the medical people gave me a quick once-over, decided there was nothing much wrong with me and told me to board the plane. Here British Airways took over and ensured for me the most comfortable journey they could manage.

But oh the humiliation, the embarrassment! For that short period I was triply dependent: on my friends, who were as loyal as friends could be, on the medical team, who were magnificent, and on the BA staff, the very model of professionalism.

I didn’t like it, don’t worry about that. And that wasn’t only because I was so unwell. No, it was that sense of total dependence. I could do nothing for myself. I had, so to speak, to take orders (not that anybody gave me any, but you know what I mean). I was helpless, quite literally, in the hands of those looking after me. 

After all, all my life I have been the strong one! Isn’t that what men in general and minsters in particular are?  Mine has been the shoulder other people cry on. I have been Mr Reliability when others have lost heart. (Well, something like all that, anyway...) And now this! Oh dear.

But looking back, I have decided to treat it as a positive experience, however unpleasant. I learned a lesson we instinctively forget - that in reality we are all dependent on others (not to mention God) twenty-four hours a day. What happened that morning was just an extreme case that threw that reality into sharp relief.

The fact is that none of us can live without relying on others in a million and one ways. And the fact is also that for each of us a day will come when that reliance will be right there for all the world to see. So it’s just as well to recognise it now and silence any pride that whispers, “Oh, but I’m different...”

I’m just old enough to remember the declining years of Winston Churchill. Here was this powerful man, a man who had led Britain through terrible years of war, a man who changed the course of history. And I remember him hunched up in his wheel-chair surrounded by a cluster of doctors.

I remember Muhammad Ali, thought by many to be the greatest boxer in history, the man who “floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee”. And I see him now barely able to walk or lift up his hand.

I could easily go on... Stephen Hawking, the man with the brain that encompasses the universe... Nelson Mandela, dead now but still so fresh in everyone’s memory... Even the strongest, whether physically or mentally, are weak. Do you feel strong today? Good! Enjoy your strength and make the most of it! But do remember that in the context of life as a whole it is only an illusion.

Paul, in the New Testament, wrote some wonderful words: “When I am weak, then I am strong.” What did he mean? That it is when we are obviously weak that we are forced to rely on God and his supernatural strength. He also wrote: “My strength is made perfect... in weakness”. Strange! But true: it’s when we face up to our essential weakness that we find real strength.

Jesus knew utter weakness. They seized him, beat him up, flogged him and nailed him to a cross in full public view. Could you get more helpless, more humiliated than that? 

I can’t pretend I saw it this way while riding around Bangalore Airport, but I do now: in my lowliness I was in the care not only of wonderful friends, skilful doctors and efficient flight staff, but also of one who knows more about plumbing the depths than anybody else ever has or ever will.

Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of all creation, thank you that you were willing to experience the lowest depths of pain and dependence for my sake. Amen.