Besides everything else, 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? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. (2Co 11:28-30 NIV)

Deathly peril, shipwrecked, murderers, day and night out afloat at sea granting no respite or rest. The daily congregation of people seeking advice and help together with the continual care for the churches scattered far and wide is also quite invasive and stressful that one may compare it to the martyrdom sketched before and call it a ongoing martyrdom. St. Paul bears this heavy burden of his service and apostolic calling and therefore writes: Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn? And if towards the end of the letter to the Galatians he refers to the marks of Jesus that he bears, this stamp and seal of his suffering and he addresses the church: “Let no one cause me trouble!”, then this is quite understandable. He is tired of suffering. When he finds the testimony of his faithful service in his own weakness and therefore addresses the Corinthians and his enemies with a defiant: “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness,” then we understand that too.

Whoever will abide with this weakness, will find that it means honour. Yet he does not refer to that. At the end of this epistle we find the glorious words: “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me… For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Here there is no word that the work ends or that the faithfulness stops. Rather we hear of the servant of Christ, which shames the self-centred and ambitious impostors and the ignorant Corinthian congregation too.

You witnesses of the cross’s reign! For Christ’s wounds sake we beseech you: Don’t forsake the first love for that would bring a thousand pangs and fear of death.

Do you desire to be trombones of grace, then firstly  accommodate yourselves to this grace. By these wounds you are redeemed and justified before God – proclaim them and witness to their healing power.

Live and proclaim God’s grace and mercy. As we complete our pilgrimage let us give testimony of his mercy and love that carried us through. (Nikolaus Ludwig Graf von Zinzendorf 1700-1760.  The translation is rather literal and neither poetic nor hymnal)

(Translation of Wilhelm Löhe’s devotion for Tuesday after Sunday Sexagesimae (2^nd Sunday before Lent) as found on Pg. 105 in Lob sei Dir ewig, o Jesu!   (Eternal Praise to you o Jesus!) edited by A. Schuster and puplished in the Freimund Verlag, Neuendettelsau 1949.)