After that he returned to Damascus where he was pursued by the Nabatean king Aretas IV. Likely he was after Paul as a favor to the Jews who were conspiring to kill him (Acts 9:23).

Here’s what happened, as Paul recounts it:

“In Damascus the governor under King Aretas had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me. But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands.” (2 Cor. 11:32f).

Great victors were known more for scaling city walls — not for being lowered in baskets to escape.

To Paul it was just one more sign of his weakness. But “weakness” for Paul was a loaded word — since it tapped into the central story of one who was crucified in weakness but raised in power. His central faith narrative was cruciform.

My guess is that many of us have had some basket-lowering moments in 2008. We’ve been weak.

And yet in the weaknesses, we’ve experienced God’s renewing power. We’ve grown in faith and hope toward God and in love toward our fellow human beings.

We’ve come to trust in his mysterious ways. We’ve come to long for his kingdom in its fullness. We’ve learned that he is a God of second (and third, fourth) chances. We’ve experienced his presence among us.

Therefore, we boast all the more gladly about our weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on us (2 Cor. 12:9).