My Grace is Enough

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. ” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong”. – 2nd Corinthians 12: 9-10 NIV

As a child growing up, I always knew I was different. I was told that all of my organs were a mirror image of everyone else.   For example, my heart is on the right side of my chest.  That wasn’t the only thing that I noticed that was different. I kept getting sick all the time. I went from doctor to doctor but I wasn’t getting better. They would say “Oh it’s your tonsils. “,  “It’s your adenoids “,  “You have bronchitis”, “You have asthma” or “It’s just an ear infection.”  My Parent’s could never get a straight answer.

  After 13 years of this and dozens of procedures later. I got the news ” Stephon you have Kartagener’s syndrome. Kartagener’s has no cure. It’s super rare. All that they can do is control it and not fix it.  It’s a rare genetic mutation that causes the mirrored organs, the sinus infections, ear infections, and lung infections. you can live a normal life but it may be difficult.”

For years, I questioned God. “Lord, Why Me? Why must I endure such a disorder Why can’t I live a normal?”  The answer I got was “My Grace is enough.” That’s all I got, four words and five syllables.  That was not the answer I was looking for. I thought maybe, just maybe He would point me in some direction that would lead to the answer I wanted. Nope, I got “My grace is enough.”

That’s the only answer Paul received when he was suffered from a “thorn” in his side.  “My Grace is sufficient for you,”.  Paul could have given up and said he was too weak to carry on his mission. However, he used that weakness as a tool to show God’s glory. So like Paul, I strive to not focus on my disorder as a weakness.  Instead, I use it as a tool to show others that if I can do it then so can others.

I have my good and bad days but I’m thankful that God made me this way. I know that I can make it because His Grace is enough. Whenever times get hard we must remember that God’s amazing grace covers us daily and that’s all we need to make it.