Last week, I heard an unvaccinated man at the Sturgis motorcycle rally tell a reporter that if it’s his time to die, he is more than willing to accept his fate.
He may also infect several people along the way and occupy an ICU bed needed by a mother of eight who is battling cancer, but not surprisingly, he ignored that whole collective responsibility part.
Then he added, “God will never give you more than you can handle.”
For anyone who believes that “God doesn’t give you more than you can handle,” I’d like to invite you to travel to Somalia and tell that to the starving, diseased child living on the streets of Mogadishu not to worry:
“God will never give you more than you can handle.”
Or perhaps offer the same assurances to the North Korean dissidents who are condemned to break rocks in concentration camps until their bodies fall apart and they die:
“Don’t worry, freedom fighters. God will never give you more than you can handle.”
Or how about the tens of thousands of children victimized by pedophile priests over the years:
“Fear not, kids. God will never give you more than you can handle.”
Seems a little trite when you look beyond your own backyard. Doesn’t it?
“God will never give you more than you can handle” is a statement most often uttered by people of means who take enormous pleasure is crediting themselves for their station in life, when in truth, an absence of any real hardship and enormous privilege has probably helped a great deal.
You know the type:
Born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple.
I’ll also point out that “God will never give you more than you can handle” comes from 1 Corinthians and pertains specifically to temptation.
Nothing more.
Not starvation, disease, poverty, assault, imprisonment, or torture.
Simply temptation. God will not tempt you any more than you can handle.
So to imply that it pertains to anything other than temptation isn’t even Biblically accurate, which is shocking. This might be the first time in all of human history that someone has twisted the words of the Bible (or ignored portions of the Bible completely) in order to serve their own selfish needs.
That, of course, was sarcasm, in case you missed it.
So the next time you hear someone utter the words, “God will never give you more than you can handle,” please tell them to shut the hell up.
Or maybe purchase them a one-way ticket to North Korea.
