2 Corinthians 12:9 “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me.” I love this verse. When I hear this verse I remember that we don’t always have to be strong. We don’t always have to be perfect. We don’t always have to get it right. When I hear this verse I am reminded that God’s power is made perfect in our weakness, not in our strength. Today's episode talks about why it is OK to not always be strong. Why it is important to come to God in our weakness. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Yes, It’s Ok To Be Weak!
2 Corinthians 12:9 “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me.”
I love this verse. When I hear this verse I remember that we don’t always have to be strong. We don’t always have to be perfect. We don’t always have to get it right. When I hear this verse I am reminded that God’s power is made perfect in our weakness, not in our strength. I don’t know about you, but I find that awfully comforting. We tend to feel like we have to be strong for everyone else around us. Whether we are a parent, a spouse, a friend, we want to be the strong ones for those around us. Do you ever feel like that? Do you ever get tired of feeling like you have to be strong? This verse gives you permission to not be the strong one all the time.
I have kiddos that struggle with their mental health at times. When they are struggling it feels like we have to be strong as they need us to be there for them. They need us to be the safe place that they can land. They need us not to fall apart because they are already falling apart and they need us to hold them together. This isn’t just kids either. Maybe you have a spouse or a friend who struggles with mental illness. When they are falling apart, you feel you need to be strong to help hold them together. Is this you? Do you feel like if you fall apart everything will fall apart? I get it, I understand how that feels. This is why I love this verse. We may have to be strong with others and for others, and yet we don’t have to be strong for God or when we are with God.
When we are with God we can let it all go. We can be weak. We can cry, we can yell, we can fall apart. The beauty of it all is that when we are weak with God, He actually makes us stronger. I just thought of an analogy and I don’t know if it’s an exact fit but it came to my mind so I am trusting the Holy Spirit wants me to share it with you. The analogy I just thought of was something my son was talking about the other day. He was talking about how when we work out, our muscles are broken down, and then when they heal they are stronger. This is what came to mind when thinking of being stronger when we are weak with the Lord. God said His power is made perfect in our weakness. When we are weak with God we are strong, why is this?
One reason for this is that when we allow ourselves to be weak, we make more room for the Lord. We finally admit that we can’t do it all ourselves and that we need help. We turn to Him and we ask him to help us. Actually, at this point, we usually beg Him to help us. When we finally decide to be weak it’s because we have done all that we could do and it didn’t work. When we are finally ready to admit we need God we are so desperate and we would do anything for our prayers to be answered. This is when God can help us the most. This is when we are the most ready for His help.
God is just waiting for us to realize that we need His help. He is such a good Father that He waits for us to ask for help. He does not try to force Himself on us. He is patient too! He will sit by patiently watching us make the same mistakes over and over again until we finally realize that we don’t have to do it by ourselves. I imagine it must be frustrating for Him to sit there and watch us make the same mistakes time and time again. I heard this story at Christmas Eve mass once and I never forgot it. It just popped into my head when I thought about how frustrated God must be watching us. It was a Christmas poem/story called The Man and The Birds as told by Paul Harvey. I guess the author is unknown. Let me read it in case you have not heard it.
The Man and the Birds (Click Here for website)
Author Unknown (As told by Paul Harvey)
The man I’m going to tell you about was not a Scrooge, he was a kind decent, mostly good man. Generous to his family and upright in his dealings with other men. But he just didn’t believe in all of that incarnation stuff that the churches proclaim at Christmas time. It just didn’t make sense and he was too honest to pretend otherwise. He just couldn’t swallow the Jesus story, about God coming to Earth as a man.
He told his wife I’m truly sorry to distress you, but I’m not going with you to church this Christmas Eve. He said he would feel like a hypocrite and that he would much rather just stay at home, but that he would wait up for them. So he stayed and they went to the midnight service.
Shortly after the family drove away in the car, snow began to fall. He went to the window to watch the flurries getting heavier and heavier and then he went back to his fireside chair and began to read his newspaper.
Minutes later he was startled by a thudding sound. Then another ... and then another. At first, he thought someone must be throwing snowballs against the living room window. But when he went to the front door to investigate he found a flock of birds huddled outside miserably in the snow. They’d been caught in the storm and in a desperate search for shelter they had tried to fly through his large landscape window. That is what had been making the sound.
Well, he couldn’t let the poor creatures just lie there and freeze, so he remembered the barn where his children stabled their pony. That would provide a warm shelter. All he would have to do is to direct the birds into the shelter.
Quickly, he put on a coat and galoshes and he tramped through the deepening snow to the barn. He opened the doors wide and turned on a light so the birds would know the way in. But the birds did not come in.
So, he figured that food would entice them. He hurried back to the house and fetched some bread crumbs. He sprinkled them on the snow, making a trail of bread crumbs to the yellow-lighted wide open doorway of the stable. But to his dismay, the birds ignored the bread crumbs.
The birds continued to flap around helplessly in the snow. He tried catching them but could not. He tried shooing them into the barn by walking around and waving his arms. Instead, they scattered in every direction ... every direction except into the warm lighted barn.
And that’s when he realized they were afraid of him. To them, he reasoned, I am a strange and terrifying creature. If only I could think of some way to let them know that they can trust me. That I am not trying to hurt them but to help them. But how? Any move he made tended to frighten them and confuse them. They just would not follow. They would not be led or shooed because they feared him.
He thought to himself if only I could be a bird and mingle with them and speak their language. Then I could tell them not to be afraid. Then I could show them the way to the safe warm barn. But I would have to be one of them so they could see ... and hear ... and understand.
At that moment the church bells began to ring. The sound reached his ears above the sounds of the wind.
He stood there listening to the bells, Adeste Fidelis, listening to the bells pealing the glad tidings of Christmas.
And he sank to his knees in the snow …
I just love that story. In the story, the man finally understood why God sent His only Son to save us. To me, it also shows how frustrating it must be for God to watch us live our lives. This man wasn’t angry at the birds, he was full of compassion and just wanted to help them. I believe this is how God looks at us too. I think he watches us live our lives and He knows things would be easier if we listened to Him. He knows we wouldn’t be suffering as much if we lived in this world but were not of this world. He is not up there judging us and thinking we are stupid and wondering why we just don’t get it. I think he looks at us with compassion and is just waiting for us to stop trying to do it ourselves and finally turn to Him. When we do he is ready to jump in and help us. I think when we are weak, when we finally give in and ask for help God smiles and says, “Finally my child, how can I help you!”
You may feel you have to be strong with others, but you do not have to be strong with God. Let him shoulder your problems. Hand Him your worry, your cares, and your deepest desires, and let him carry them for you. In your weakness, His power is made perfect. Wouldn’t it be great to have more of God’s power in your life? I know I could definitely use more.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we want to be weak with you, show us how. We want your power to be made perfect in us. We love you Lord and we know your grace is sufficient for us. We know this and we also forget it when times get tough, please remind us, Lord. Remind us that we don’t have to always be strong. Remind us that your power is made perfect in weakness. Remind us that we can be ourselves with you. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. This has been a rough week for my family. I won’t go into details as it is not my story to share. However, I will say that being a parent is hard, and raising kids who struggle with mental illness, and let's be honest there aren’t many that don’t struggle with something these days, is even harder. If you have a child struggling please know you are not alone. You are doing a great job. You are a good parent, even when it feels like you are failing. The unkind things they say when they are struggling are not true. They love you, even if they can’t show it at the moment. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Have a blessed day!