For my weakness becomes a portal to God’s power. 2 Corinthians 12:10 (TPT)

Weaknesses and Suffering – Weaker/Stronger Series – Part 5

Go to PART 1  |  PART 2  |  PART 3  |  PART 4

Something happens when you come face to face with your weaknesses. With your sins.

It’s a sobering reckoning.
It’s a redemptive freedom.
No more images to uphold and maintain. No more lies, no more pretending, and hiding.
Just being.

And it has nothing to do with our popularity, talent, money, perfection, success, fame, fortune, or lack thereof. We bear the image of the Divine within us, the Holy mixed with the human. A Divine and glorious collision of love and redemption.

When we understand who we are and where we stand in the world, warts and all; when we finally begin to realize that we never had to fight for our spot in the first place, we just had to stand in it, we can finally be our true selves. Graced, loved, strengthened.

There’s a song that's been a kind of anthem of mine since it was released in 1997. (Email me the name of the song and the band, if you know it: talktous@pktfuel.com). The chorus lyrics are:

If I was not so weak
If I was not so cold
If I was not so scared of being broken
Growing old
I would be

Frail

“For my weakness becomes a portal for God’s power.”

If I wasn’t so frail – so aware of my finiteness, so completely understanding of my smallness – I would never be able to see just how significant and meaningful my life is, and that I should treat it so, at this moment, in this tiny space of time that I have on the earth #lifeisavapor.

In response to his book, “Angela’s Ashes” and the horrific childhood he endured, Frank McCourt said: “I have learned the significance of my own insignificant life.”

There’s something about suffering, the sharing in it and of it, that brings us together.

Infinite strength comes from vulnerability, surrender, and honesty. Why do you think confession was so important to the ancients and in many faith traditions the world over?

It's a wonder and a miracle that in our moment of self-realisation and weakness; when we surrender over to our reality and the reality of our being held by someone greater, and in something greater; it is at that moment that we find our true strength. In Christ, through Christ.

Our obsession with “earning” our place in the world keeps us from receiving it. And it keeps us from others, too.

We have become addicted to our sense of security and entitlement. We stay penned in our seemingly safe and untouchable places of wealth and superiority, so much so, that we don’t reach out to others with the same grace we are seeking for ourselves.

Partially because we are blind to the need and partially because we are so caught up in ourselves that there isn’t room for anyone else.

But we cannot give what we are unwilling to receive.

That’s why it is precisely when we are weak, and we know it; when we can look our weakness in the eye and not falter; when we show God our weakness and not cower; when we can boldly and gladly own the entirety of our lives (come boldly before the throne of God), we can finally receive the grace we need.

In my weaknesses are opportunities for connection (one cannot heal alone), transformation and healing. I cannot say that I always delight in them, but I am leaning into them. Because it's when we attend to our weaknesses (individually and communally), that we are most strong.

Go to Part 6 – The Weak Places »

Please share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

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