The word of the day is “deliverance.” In our reading of 2 Corinthians 1:8-11, St. Paul writes that God has delivered “us” from some unnamed peril.  Some believe that the Apostle refers to the menace of his adversaries in Ephesus (1 Cor. 6:9).  But Paul’s story is filled with plots, threats, slanders, imprisonments, beatings, illnesses, and shipwrecks.  He was lost at sea, in frequent danger from robbers, and even stoned (2  Cor. 11:25).  But if Paul divulges the sense of danger and distress in this unidentified incident, it is only to emphasize his deliverance. In Dire Straits The word “trouble” is too weak for what Paul endured. At its root, the Greek word for “trouble” is “to be pressured” or…