‘The World is Not Enough’ was the last James Bond film to star Desmond Llewellyn as ‘Q’, the supplier of James Bond’s famous gadgets. ‘Q’’s last words to Bond are these:

Q: Now, pay attention 007. I've always tried to teach you two things. First, never let them see you bleed.

James Bond: And the second?

Q: Always have an escape plan.

I sometimes think how wonderful it would be to be that kind of person – who never shows weakness, and who always has an escape plan, a plan ‘B’. On the other hand the apostle Paul shocked his readers by drawing attention to his own weaknesses.

What are the characteristics of weakness?

Loss of control

It’s a scary thing to lose control of events. But sometimes we’re confronted by issues that we can’t move on our own; our fate seems to be in the hands of others. Or, we’re surrounded by chaos and all we can do is hang in there. Paul knew what this was like:

‘I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea, and in danger from false brothers. I have laboured and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have been cold and naked.’ (2 Corinthians 11:26-27)

Anxiety

With loss of control comes anxiety. Anxious thoughts are normal for those who are out on a limb trusting God - ‘Test me and know my anxious thoughts’ (Ps 139:23). Anxiety expresses itself physically for example in tension in the body, or headaches; it expresses itself with mental disorder – negative fantasies about the future, or obsessive thought patterns, going over the same things again and again. Paul understood this. He wrote

‘besides all this, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?’ (2 Corinthians 11:29)

Prayer does not ‘fix it’

At times of weakness we turn quickly to prayer, asking God to help us, to take our weakness away, to restore our strength and wellbeing. But sometimes prayer does not ‘fix it’ - and we are still weak. At times like that we do not know what God is doing and that is hard to admit. Paul knew what it was like to pray urgently for God’s rescue, or God’s wisdom – and in the case of the ‘thorn in the flesh’ it did not come immediately.

When he went to prayer the third time God did answer, but not with the solution Paul was desperately seeking: ‘my grace is sufficient for you because my power is made perfect in weakness.’ (2 Corinthians 12:9)

We will never choose to be weak or incomplete; but Paul says this:

‘For Christ’s sake I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecution, in difficulties. For when I am weak then I am strong’. (2 Corinthians 12:10)