"Is It True? God Never Gives Us More Than We Can Handle?" - 1Corinthians 10:12 - 13; Psalm 46
A Sermon by Alex W. Evans, Pastor
Second Presbyterian Church, Richmond, VA
Sunday, January 30, 2022
Texts: I Corinthians 10:12-13; Psalm 46
Is It True? God Never Gives Us More Than We Can Handle?
Every couple of weeks, I receive a newsletter from Duke Divinity School entitled, Faith and Leadership. This publication always shares stories of new, inspiring, and effective practices of ministry that are bearing fruit.
In the most recent edition of this publication, a certain title grabbed my attention: “What If We Are All Burned Out?” This is how the piece opens: “Is everyone burned out? When I read about pastors who are considering resigning, I am not surprised. The stress of 2020 and 2021 has been relentless and exhausting. When I look at the people in the pews, I see the stress — in particular the stress experienced by parents, people of color, teachers, students and health care workers. I don’t know how to weight the comparative stress of anyone’s particular responsibility. And I wonder how congregations can respond when nearly everyone is overwhelmed.” (Faith and Leadership, Duke Divinity School, faithandleadership.com - January 21, 2022)
David Odom, the Executive Director of Leadership Education at Duke goes on to share a study from Harvard Business School that defines burnout in this way: “It is a complex condition that can manifest any of three distinct symptoms: “exhaustion (a depletion of mental or physical resources), cynical detachment (a depletion of social connectedness) and a reduced sense of efficacy (a depletion of value for oneself).” (see reference above)
Often, when we feel stressed and overwhelmed - namely, exhausted, cynically detached, with a reduced sense of efficacy - we may have heard this statement, or something similar from a friend, or fellow church member, or someone else: “I know things are rough, but it will be okay; remember, . . . God never gives you more than you can handle.”
We have all probably heard something like that. We may have even spoken those words, hoping to be helpful: “Life is tough, but stay strong. God will not give you more than you can handle.”
There are lots of things that faithful people say, intending to be helpful, thinking too that the message might be biblical, when they really are not.
“God will not give us more than we can handle.” Is that a helpful statement? Is that actually in the Bible? What should we say about this?
There are a few verses in I Corinthians, chapter 10, that might seem to be the source of this statement - God will not give us more than we can handle.
Listen to what it says in I Corinthians 10:
12So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. 13No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.
There is that line - “God will not let you be tested beyond your strength.” Most people agree that that is where this idea comes from about God not giving us more than we can handle.
But if you look at the larger context of the passage, the subject is NOT stress and overwhelming burden. The subject is “temptation.” The Greek word is more related to “tested” as in, “tested” by sexual immorality, and “tested” by idolatry, and other things that challenge faithful people. Paul is not talking about exhaustion, or cynical detachment that comes from being overwhelmed, or lack of agency because we are so beat down.
The people to whom Paul was writing, in and around Corinth in the middle of the first century, were trying to learn what it meant to be Christian in a very pagan world. Paul was trying to teach them to leave behind their former ways, which included idol worship, temple prostitutes, drunken brawls, and more. Paul was trying to shape them in self-discipline, show them the ways of Jesus. He says, in verse 14: “flee from the worship of idols.” We all get tempted. Jesus faced temptation. This passage is about resolve, character in the face of temptation, not about weariness, not about whether God gives us more than we can handle.
So, we should be careful. It is really not Biblical to say “God will not give you more than you can handle.” I am not sure it is very kind either.
Life can often feel overwhelming. Loneliness can feel overwhelming. Grief can feel overwhelming. Losing a child, especially to violence, or gun violence, dealing with an addiction, overcoming a life-changing diagnosis - all can be absolutely debilitating! None of those things does God “give” to us - as in “God never gives us more than we can handle.” Certain things happen to us, come to us. Bad things are part of life, sometimes very bad things. Let’s be clear: these bad things do not come from God but from life’s unfortunate turns. And they can be devastating - so difficult to handle - and we need help handling them.
So, this is why we turn to some other words of Scripture which remain so helpful and important in times of difficulty, and weariness, words from Psalm 46:
1God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
2Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; 3though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult.
4There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. 5God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved; God will help it when the morning dawns. 6The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts.
7The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.
This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
The words of Psalm 46 seem especially pertinent, appropriate for these particular days, when burn-out may be more at the forefront of our lives.
The pandemic wears us down in these days - fears, decisions about where to go and what to do or not do, mask debates. We are weighed down: “do I have a cold, or COVID?,” “Did I pick it up, or pass it to someone?”
The struggling democracy, and polarizing issues that breed such hostility among people, are what can make us feel cynical and detached from one another.
The crisis of the climate, the uncertainty of what it means to be a church in these days, and how to care for one another when we are so isolated and perplexed, is what feels overwhelming.
Other things can make us weary - we may be tired of talking about racism, but we have much work to do. We may be exhausted from personal stresses - but we have to carry on.
Here is the truth: God’s people have been through so many ups and downs. God’s presence has often felt like absence for God’s people. God’s promises of hope and life have often fallen on deaf ears.
When we recite the wonderful words of Psalm 46 - God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble - we are linking our troubled and burdened lives to all those who have gone before us:
- When the family of God’s chosen people were carried into slavery in Egypt;
- When the wandering in the wilderness lasted 40 years with huge frustration, confusion, and difficulty;
- When the nations kept attacking, when the kings kept corrupting, when the people kept doing selfish and sinful things;
- When Babylon crushed the walls of Jerusalem, and captured the King - God’s chosen one - and sacked the sacred temple, the symbol of God’s presence;
- When Jesus was mocked and spit on, nailed to a cross, placed in a tomb;
- When there seemed no way - God kept making a way - with disciples, and a church, and reforms, and more reforms;
- When people were stuffed inside the middle passage on slave ships;
- When oppression reigned instead of justice, when white supremacy ruled instead of equality, when greed shaped the way instead of God’s way.
Wait! “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble. . . though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; 3though its waters roar and foam, . The Lord of hosts is with us.”
See, that is the promise - not that God will never give you more than you can handle. Hard times come. Life is difficult and often dangerous. But this is the over-riding and sustaining truth: God is refuge and strength - always present, always at work - in our midst, loving and guiding us. God will help us with all that comes our way. That is what we lean into.
Thich Nhat Hanh - the beloved Vietnamese Buddhist monk, writer, peace activist, whom Martin Luther King Jr. nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967, died last week at the age of 95. So much of what Thich Nhat Hanh wrote, said, and did inspired so many.
Thich Nhat Hanh told a familiar story about a letter he received. The letter was about a refugee girl in Southeast Asia, part of the boat people. The letter shared that the young girl, only twelve, was raped by a sea pirate. In response to this horrific act, the girl jumped into the ocean and drowned herself.
This is what Thich Nhat Hanh says: “When you first learn of something like that, you get angry at the pirate. You naturally take the side of the girl.
As you look more deeply you will see it differently. If you take the side of the little girl, then it is easy. You only have to take a gun and shoot the pirate.”
“But we can't do that. In my meditation,” he says “I saw that if I had been born in the village of the pirate and raised in the same conditions as he was, I would now be the pirate. There is a great likelihood that I would become a pirate. I can't condemn myself so easily. In my meditation, I saw that many babies are born along the Gulf of Siam, hundreds every day, and if we educators, social workers, politicians, and others do not do something about the situation, in twenty-five years a number of them will become sea pirates. That is certain. If you or I were born today in those fishing villages, we might become sea pirates in twenty-five years. If you take a gun and shoot the pirate, you shoot all of us, because all of us are to some extent responsible for this state of affairs.”
The monk continues: “After a long meditation, I wrote this poem. In it, there are three people: the twelve-year-old girl, the pirate, and me. Can we look at each other and recognize ourselves in each other? The title of the poem is “Please Call Me by My True Names,” because I have so many names. When I hear one of these names, I have to say, “Yes.”
And his poem includes this:
I am the twelve-year-old girl,
refugee on a small boat,
who throws herself into the ocean
after being raped by a sea pirate.
And I am the pirate,
my heart not yet capable
of seeing and loving.
Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and laughter at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are one.
Please call me by my true names,
so I can wake up
and so the door of my heart can be left open,
the door of compassion. (from The Salt Project - https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2022/1/22/please-call-me-by-my-true-names-by-thich-nhat-hanh)
The door of compassion!
Life can be full of uncertainty, difficulty, challenge and heartache. Bad things happen. We can feel overwhelmed at times. But whenever life is hard, whenever we feel burdened and beat down, God always sustains us, goes with us, never leaves us. “Please call me by my names, so I can wake up.”
God will help us handle all that comes our way - a refuge and strength, a present help in times of trouble.
And God keeps calling forth one thing from us - compassion - to live with love and peace, working for a more wholesome world. May it be so. Amen
Prayer of Commitment: O Lord, to turn from you is to fall; to turn to you is to rise: to open our hearts, to trust your presence and care, to serve with compassion - that is to abide forever. We seek that way following Jesus. Amen
Alex Evans, Pastor, Second Presbyterian Church, Richmond, VA preached this sermon during morning worship on Sunday, January 30, 2022. This is a rough manuscript.