More than we can handle?

1 Corinthians 10:13New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.

Have you heard this one? 

"God never gives us more than we can handle."  

Well, this might be where that cliche comes from.

Truth is that I think we get more than we can handle all the time. Plenty of times, and I'll bet if you think carefully, you can come up with a good amount of Biblical characters who'd agree with you.

Now, whether God GIVES us those things we can't handle - those tests - is the first problem I've always had with the cliche.  Even in my darkest times, I've never been able to conjure up an image of God gleefully dumping as much misery on me as possible.

And that's not what the passage says. Instead it says that God will not let us be tested beyond our strength. God is the savior here, not the tester.

The second problem I have with the cliche, is that the great promise isn't that we won't get more than we can handle.  

Instead, the promise is that we have strength to handle and a way out to endure those tests.  We have more strength and endurance in fact than we can possibly imagine.

Hasn't that really been how it's worked out for you? Even when things are their worst, somehow, someway strength to get through that dark place comes, even if it seems to take forever to get there. (yes, I realize I talked yesterday about how darkness isn't always bad...but sometimes, the metaphor just works!) :-)

The promise from God is strength even when we don't feel strong. 

And a light at the end of the tunnel - endurance - even when we wonder how we will endure. No matter how dim that light might seem to be.

That is far from a false promise of never getting more than we can handle.  Frankly, sometimes it does seem like more than we can handle.  

At least on our own.

And to that, God says: "You aren't on your own. You can endure because I am with you."

Lord of mercy, grant me strength to see beyond the weakness that I feel when everything seems to be too much.  Amen.