Embracing Weakness
If you’ve seen the homepage of my blog, you know that I included the line “Thoughts to encourage myself and maybe even you.” I anticipated that writing would be a tool to help me learn along my faith journey. I’d primarily be giving myself advice, and it would be a blessing if others could relate along the way. I was right, and this is definitely one of those posts where my keyboard needs to serve as a mirror. I recently watched a short video message by Paul Washer. He covered how God cultivates weakness in our lives so that we will become aware of our all consuming need for and dependence on him. I felt one of the best lines in his message was “There is only one hero in this story, and that is Jesus Christ.”
As I listened to Brother Paul’s message, it occurred to me that among many others, my blindness is the most obvious and apparent weakness in my life. In that context, the message made perfect sense. I can clearly understand how God has worked in my life over the years through this weakness. One major example is how it forces me to practice patience. Simply not being able to do a few things on my own, like driving and others, forces me to be patient in my reliance on others. It also greatly encourages me to trust more fully in God. When navigating new and unknown areas, trusting new people, and generally navigating in a world that has an ability to rely on that I don’t, there is a level of unknown that can be very discomforting at times if not left in God’s hands. I can clearly remember many times where I’ve found myself so frustrated in the moment by my inability to independently complete some nominal task, that I had to turn to prayer for perspective and peace. I can tell you it never fails to help me feel much better. In 2 Corinthians 12:9, in talking about a thorn in his flesh to keep him from becoming proud, the Apostle Paul tells us that God responded “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”
A few days after I had watched this message, a conversation with a friend helped me to think about this a little deeper. We were discussing how difficult it can be to strike a balance between waiting patiently on God and actively doing our part to step out in faith. I think we all have our situations, and maybe at times even excuses, that complicate this. My friend shared that she can tend to lean on inactivity due to being anxious about messing up, wanting to avoid making mistakes that would effect her children. I can’t relate to that specifically, but it’s very understandable. I realized that I often have the same tendency to prefer inactivity to risking failure, for a more self centered reason. It’s easy to feel that as a visually impaired person, the world already has no trouble coming up with its own reasons to doubt me. I don’t need to do anything to add to that or prove them right. What Paul goes on to say in verse 9 mentioned above shows me that God often has bigger plans than hiding weakness and playing it safe. He said “So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.” Who am I, and who are you, to think that God can’t empower us to do anything and everything he calls us to do? He can when we can’t, in spite of and maybe even because of any weaknesses we hold on to.
In fact, great strength can be found when our weakness is fully realized. In his message, Paul Washer shared the story of a drowning surfer he encountered in rough water off the coast of Peru. He shared that the desperation in this small weak and helpless young man was very obvious, and he knew that he could not save him alone. A group of more experienced very athletic surfers also looked very concerned as he recruited their help. Everyone knew that the drowning surfer could grab on to and drown several much stronger men if they weren’t careful in getting him back to shore. Brother Paul asked the audience what it was that gave this helpless man the strength to be so dangerous? It wasn’t discipline. It wasn’t courage or strength of will. It was fear and recognition of complete and absolute need. He realized that if someone else didn’t act on his behalf he was going to die! That should sound familiar to us in terms of our eternal lives, remember the only hero in this story?
Most people don’t have a vision impairment. Hopefully you never find yourself facing certain drowning if help doesn’t come quickly. We all have weakness though, in different areas to varying degrees. If anyone suggests that they don’t have any weakness, I would think that shows the possibility that arrogance could be a contender. The overarching message that Paul Washer made was that in full recognition of our weakness and need, we tap in to God’s strength and ability. This is why prayer and dependence on Him is so important. In studying scripture on this topic, I found 1 Corinthians 15:43 to be the most ultimately hopeful. It says “Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength.” How’s that for something to look forward to for all who put their faith and trust in Jesus?
