Nathan James Norman
  • Blog
  • Writer
  • Pastor
  • Bookshelf
  • Links
  • Contact

Nathan James Norman

Husband. Father. Pastor.
Storyteller. Reader. Comic Fan.
Slave of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Orchard Church

God Will ALWAYS Give You More Than You Can Handle

11/12/2012

3 Comments

 
One of my favorite shows is the long-running, low-budget comedy Mystery Science Theater 3000.  In a nutshell, a couple of mad scientists marooned a guy in space and force him to watch bad movies with the hopes that this experiment will somehow enable them to take over the world. In the early days of the show the “mads” often present their latest “evil” inventions to their captives. One of these experiments in particular, “A Hard Pill to Swallow” always struck me as a little harsh for the tone of the show. Take a watch:

I, of course, thought it was hilarious. When I first saw this episode I was a teenager who was deathly ill and had to take a veritable mountian of pills three times a day. I learned how to swallow a bunch of pills in one gulp, and to date my record is 28 pills in one swallow!

So I understand the idiom “That’s a hard pill to swallow.” It speaks to the difficulty of some situations. But fear not, whenever you have a “hard pill to swallow” there’s another idiom that will strength your bones, cause you to man-up (or woman-up), suck it up, and soldier on through the situation! Christians often say “God will never give you more than you can handle.”

See?! So if you’re out of money, your spouse has gone missing, your kids have disowned you and your parents just jacked your car . . . just remember that little idiom, suck it up, and um . . . keep living.

Feel better?

I didn’t think so. That saying is wrong, anti-biblical, unhelpful, hurtful, harmful and accursed. It basically is communicating, “if you find yourself in a tough situation, God obviously knows you can handle it, so try your hardest to make it through and stop your whining.” Yeah. That sounds like something in the Bible.

In fact, I remember this one story where Moses was leading the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, but the Pharaoh decided to hunt him and his people down and slaughter them. As Pharaoh’s army forced the Israelites against the mighty Red Sea, God spoke to Moses and said, “I will never give you more than you can handle.” And so, filled with encouragement, Moses turned to the Israelite men, women, children and infants and shouted, “SWIM!”

What’s that? You don’t remember the story happening that way? Yeah, that’s because it didn’t. What really happened? God put the Israelites in an impossible situation! How did they respond? Well, first they freaked out: “as Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up and saw the Egyptians coming after them. Then the Israelites were terrified” but then they, “cried out to the Lord for help” (Exodus 14:10 HCSB).

You see, the message of the Bible is not one of self-sufficiency (like the idiom “God will never give you more than you can handle” implies). Instead, the message of the Bible is one of God-dependancy!

The world is too big, and life is too complicated to go it alone. I think God doesn’t just give us “difficult pills to swallow,” he gives us impossible pills to swallow! (Like the Terry-gerbil pill!) I think God glories in giving us more than we can handle so that we will cry out to him like the Israelites in Egypt and say “help me God, I can’t do this on my own!”

Here’s what happened when the apostle Paul asked the Lord to remove the mysterious (and impossible) “thorn” in his flesh: But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me. So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, catastrophes, persecutions, and in pressures, because of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-10 HCSB).

I think God always gives us more than we can handle so that we can rely on his strength, his power and see him do things far beyond our own abilities.

    The Hardest Pill to Swallow Survey

Submit
3 Comments
Steve Balcom
11/12/2012 10:11:55 am

What a great message! I grew up in the "cod-liver oil by the spoonful" generation, and after a few years of attending school with fish-breath, or burping it up halfway through the day, I was relieved when my dad decided to allow us to take it in pill form!!!

Reply
Nathan J. Norman link
11/15/2012 12:05:12 am

Ewww gross! Thank goodness for capsules!

Reply
Nathan J. Norman link
11/15/2012 12:07:51 am

So the "survey" didn't work out the way I thought it would. My host is still working on the "instant results" sort of survey we've all come to know and love. So I won't be posting any more surveys until that feature is available . . . but the winner of the survey, with something like seven votes is: The Three-pronged Fish Hook!

Thanks for playing!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Adoption
    Art
    Axiom
    Beowulf
    Christmas
    Comics
    Drabble
    Flash Fiction
    Foster Care
    Good Friday
    Humor
    Infertility
    Interviews
    Memes
    Music
    Politics
    Practical
    Preaching
    Reviews
    Speculative
    Theology
    Tragedy
    Trinity Watch
    Untold Podcast
    Video
    Writing

    Blog Roll

    Albert Mohler
    Breakpoint
    Christian Humanist
    Christian Geek Central
    Critical Press Media
    David N. Alderman
    Doug Geivett

    Good Book Blog
    Living With Cogan
    Open Biola
    Project Rooftop
    Reasonable Faith
    Running Slowly w/ Kids
    Spirit Blade Underground
    Strangers and Aliens
    The Table Podcast
    This Old Farmhouse

    Archives

    April 2022
    March 2022
    November 2021
    August 2021
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    March 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    February 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    February 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012