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Embracing Perplexity

There are two types of people in this world. The first don’t know that they don’t know. That was me for most of my life. I thought I knew all the answers but actually I didn’t, and on top of that I didn’t know that I didn’t know.

The second type of people are those who know they don’t know. You’ve got to embrace perplexity to be one of those people. You’ve got to learn to be content not knowing. You’ve got to be able to accept your flaws and issues and just keep breathing.

It’s not a sin to be perplexed and not know what to do. The apostle Paul acknowledged this when he said, “We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair” (2 Cor. 4:8 NKJV). In other words, Paul did not allow perplexing questions and difficult issues to drag him into self-pity and disappointment with God.

He also said: “For Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (12:10 NIV)

For years, I misinterpreted this passage of Scripture. I only saw it through the filter of my surrounding culture, which thrives on success and power. Ah, I thought, I’ll just endure this short season of loss and weakness and in no time I’ll be powerful again, back up on top of the world!

But that’s not what Paul is saying at all. Paul is not enduring a temporary weakness in order to enjoy an unending strength. He’s arrived at a drastic conclusion, one that I was never comfortable with. He’s saying, “I’ve come to the place where I’m absolutely powerless, and I’m content to stay here as long as I live.”

Paul even says, “I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses” (v. 9 NIV). Do you see it? Paul the great apostle acknowledges that he’s got issues; he owns them when he says, “my weaknesses.” But he chooses to embrace them and just keeps loving and serving Jesus despite them.

In the end, Paul acknowledges his weakness is actually a gift because God’s awesome power is able to make something beautiful out of the perplexing problem he cannot solve.

What weakness do you (or should you) “own”? What perplexing problem do you just have to live with for now?