Strength in weakness

 

According to the National Hole-in-One Association, the odds of this perfect hit are about 12,000 to 1 for most golfers, with 3000 to 1 for pros. Tiger Woods has had 20. If those numbers are intimidating to a golfer, some sources say that only 59% of Christians share their faith and less than 95% have ever led someone to Christ. In other words, the odds of doing this are higher than the odds of hitting a hole-in-one. 

This is tough news for anyone with a perfectionist streak. A pastor once said, “Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly” and I understand that now more than when first hearing it. I’ve known people who are so determined to do well that they will not undertake activities in which they cannot excel. For them, it is perfection or don’t do it.

This demand for being at the top happened in high school. I did well and soon my peers jeered me if I didn’t get 100% in pop quizzes. I soon felt like a failure if I didn’t succeed and that feeling, plus pride, made life challenging. Part of the challenge is that not everything can be measured by a percentage grade.

Consider Jesus answer to this question: What is the greatest commandment? 

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:37–39)

How does one measure love? Jesus also said we are to love others as God loved us? Does that mean I die on a cross for them? Or meet all their needs? Or understand their very thoughts? Doing well in this department is impossible to gauge like golf shots or pop quizzes. How do I know if I have loved adequately? By the reactions of others? By how take my advice? By their thankfulness? 

Apart from affirmation by the Holy Spirit, there is no way of knowing when love is 100% or any percent. It is the same with obedience. Human desire can mess with honest evaluation. Perfection can be motivated by pride or the desire for power and who knows what else. These thoughts point me to this passage that clarifies what God means by perfection:

On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses— though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:5–10)

Paul had all the skill and background needed to be a major leader in the early church. But God would not let him be proud of himself. He gave him a thorn, wisely not defined. Whatever it was, God left it there to keep this incredible man from human perfectionism. The only way he could do what God wanted was to be weak, unable, useless without the power of Christ. 
Personally, I know this. Rejoicing in weakness is part of hitting a hole-in-one when it comes to obedience. If I am aware that I cannot ‘score’ and rely on Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, then I know He will do His work through me, and I might not even see the scoreboard, only hear a tiny bit of heavenly cheering — maybe.

Failing is no fun. Feeling helpless is no fun either, but unless I welcome it instead of trying in my own strength, failure is guaranteed. The perfection I desire is found only in Christ, and to have it means saying no to all else. 

PRAY: Jesus, the past few days have been a huge test of who I will trust, for forgiveness and redemption, but also for the decisions of everyday life, and for the ability that You give, even in weakness and hardships. The choice is always me or You, and when plainly put, the decision is really a no-brainer. Forgive me for forgetting, and for feeling sorry for myself that I cannot do anything without You. That also misses the mark! Amen. 

Weakness is a good thing

Jesus loves me, this I know,
for the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong;
we are weak but He is strong.

For someone who often sings “Jesus loves me…” God surprises me again by pointing to thinking about my weakness in terms of His love and compassion toward me.

As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. (Psalm 103:13–14)

Today’s devotional uses these verses again. Obviously, I’ve still more to learn from them. Spurgeon again focuses on the compassion of God, this time on the weakness of His children.

As he says, children cannot do much. They have little strength and little children are quite helpless. Yet their father does not chide them for this. In fact, he will enjoy carrying his baby who cannot walk and not at all be angry with the little one who is unable to help himself.

As verse 14 says, my heavenly Father knows my weakness. Whether it is a physical lack of strength due to some infirmity or some other shortcoming that keeps me from full capacity, He remembers that I am only dust. He even sympathizes with my weakness.

This is the God who became a man, actually, a tiny baby. He became helpless and knows helplessness. This is the Creator of the universe who allowed Himself to be beaten, mocked, and strung up on a cross. The Bible says, “He was crucified in weakness… we also are weak in him… (2 Corinthians 13:4)

Yet there is power in weakness, partly because it means I will be carried by my Father, but also because when I am weak, I will call on Him and experience His power. Without weakness, I would not do that. This makes weakness, especially a childlike weakness, my friend, not my enemy. Paul said,

… I will not boast, except of my weaknesses…. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:5–10)

Weakness is more than feeling weak. It is also being weak and unable. I’ve struggled as a teacher on those days I could not put together a lesson plan. Many times God has put people with questions in my path and I knew the answers, but my mouth seems sewn shut and I could not speak. I get weary, disorganized, depressed, and bowed down, and feel like a total failure, yet God has compassion on those who fear Him. He knows that I am dust.

I have to ask, why should I think I should be able to do everything I want to do? When I see problems, why can’t I solve them? When I see spiritual blindness and hardened hearts, why can’t I open eyes and soften hearts? Maybe my attitude of wanting to fix everything stems from pride. Maybe it stems from wanting to be like God in the wrong way, the way that tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. But I cannot do it all nor does God put me up against a wall and hammer me with “do it.” Instead, He says things like…

We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15)

The Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. (Romans 8:26)

Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. (Hebrews 12:12–13)

If I were able, I would not need God or even seek Him. It is weakness that breeds faith and weakness that keeps me in the right place before God, on my knees in humility and utter dependence. I see this clearly and can only say no wonder Paul was content to be weak and even boasted of his weaknesses.

Spurgeon says that “a person in perfect health and strength may joyfully accomplish what another cannot even think of undertaking,” but is this what God wants? I don’t think so. Jesus was such a person, but He chose weakness…

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:5–8)

For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but… we will live with him by the power of God. (2 Corinthians 13:4)