I can only do so much!

    Have you ever used that exclamation?  It’s usually uttered in a time of frustration or even anger.  At least that’s how I’ve usually used it.  But while meditating on the Beatitudes this week, that statement has started to change for me.

    We just started a small group based on those simple and profound statements listed in Matthew 5:3-10.  This week, we’re focusing on the first one:  “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  We had a good discussion last week about what this particular beatitude means (especially when compared to Luke’s version, which says, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”  Notice that “in spirit” is left out after the word “poor.”)  Marjorie Thompson is the author of the text we’re using (from the Companions in Christ series called “The Way of Blessedness”) and she’s one of my favorite spiritual writers.  Here’s what she writes about spiritual poverty:  “Poverty of spirit takes many forms.  If you have ever discovered that you cannot do what God wants simply by depending on your own intelligence, skill, energy, or self-control, you have faced something of your own spiritual poverty...The joyful paradox of our spiritual poverty is that God’s fullness can flow through our emptiness; in our weakness God’s power can be revealed; in our insufficiency grace suffices.”

    I cannot hear or read this message enough.  In other words, when I feel like I’m at the end of my rope and am ready to scream, “I can only do so much,” God intervenes and says, “Exactly!”  

    That’s the point.  I’m only expected to do so much.  That’s when God (thankfully!) interrupts and then does more than I could think or imagine.  The key is to turn the “I can only do so much” statement from frustration to petition and gratefulness.