real faith

2 Corinthians 11 

"23 Are they servants of Christ? 

I know I sound like a madman, 

but I have served him far more! 

I have worked harder, 

been put in prison more often, 

been whipped times without number, 

and faced death again and again. 

24 Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes. 

25 Three times I was beaten with rods. 

Once I was stoned. 

Three times I was shipwrecked. 

Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea. 

26 I have traveled on many long journeys. 

I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers. 

I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. 

I have faced danger in the cities, 

in the deserts, 

and on the seas. 

And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not. 

27 I have worked hard and long, 

enduring many sleepless nights. 

I have been hungry and thirsty 

and have often gone without food. 

I have shivered in the cold, 

without enough clothing to keep me warm.

28 Then, besides all this, I have the daily burden of my concern for all the churches. 

29 Who is weak without my feeling that weakness? 

Who is led astray, and I do not burn with anger?

30 If I must boast, I would rather boast about the things that show how weak I am. 31 God, the Father of our Lord Jesus, who is worthy of eternal praise, knows I am not lying. 

32 When I was in Damascus, the governor under King Aretas kept guards at the city gates to catch me. 

33 I had to be lowered in a basket through a window in the city wall to escape from him."

(In view of what Paul writes in this passage, our whining about religious persecution these days reveals it to be the prissy little thing stuck more in a strong sense of middle class white privilege.)