Give me strength!

As a church we’ve recently been looking at the issue of identity. Our identity in our relationship with Jesus, in the way we relate to each other as the church and in the way we live life with the people we meet in everyday contexts.

Two themes that I’ve been considering in relation to identity have been the characteristics of strength and weakness. As Christians the attributes of strength and weakness play a big part in our thinking, language and culture. We talk about being ‘spiritual warriors’, with the ‘armour of God’, being ‘over-comers’ and persevering as we ‘run’ towards the prize before us. In contrast, weakness is a hugely negative attribute. It evokes notions of insecurity, failure and sin. Our response to weakness, in both ourselves and others, is often disdain, pity and judgement. We don’t like it, we don’t want it and we particularly don’t want any one else to notice it!

These opposing concepts of strength and weakness are similarly obvious in Western culture. You only have to look at product marketing to see the overt message that ‘strength is good’ and ‘weakness is bad’. For instance, take a look at male toiletry adverts. According to them, using products like face cream after you shave makes you athletic, muscular and means sharing your over-sized bathroom with an attractive woman. Men’s advertising often tells us that success in life is predominantly about being physically strong whilst successful women should be able to handle a career, run the perfect family and ultimately manage life without their male counter-parts.

It’s easy for us to perceive some of these world views as extreme and ineffective. However, as Christians a lot of the subliminal messages about strength and weakness impact us in the way we view our own identity. We also have a church culture that at times has a topsy-turvy view on the two issues…

We desire to grow in our relationship with God, yet this easily slips into judging our worth by it. We seek to develop our gifts, serve the church and follow our calling, but when what we ‘do’ is stripped away, we feel lost, despondent and insignificant. When our inability is exposed, we would prefer to cover it up, blame someone else or over-sell our strengths to those around us. When we really get down to it, we’d love nothing more than to be the pin-up of Christian strength, with our weaknesses only giving us a ‘humble’ edge.

As I’ve read 2 Corinthians 12 I’ve felt really challenged about my desire to be strong and my disdain for weakness. In The Message version, Eugene Peterson has used words like ‘humiliations’, ‘looking ridiculous’ and ‘fool’. These aren’t things I’d be excited about seeing in my life! Paul goes on in the passage to talk about the ‘thorn in his flesh’ which eventually brings him to his knees in weakness. Despite inconclusive theological debate on what Paul’s ‘thorn’ might be, it’s interesting that, whatever it was, Paul is brought to a place of utter humility. He finally begs God to remove the thorn he is suffering with. How many times do we respond to our failures, inability, utter brokenness with a prayer for God to take it away? It seems, in its simplest form, we are asking God to return us to a position of strength. Yet, if weakness was good enough for Paul, then surely we’re missing something?

God’s response is not always to fix things in the way we might want Him to. He doesn’t show Paul how to get better and, with a lot of hard work, get himself out of his pain. Instead, He simply reminds Paul of His grace:
“My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness.”

There is this amazing transaction as we are made weak before God. We come to Him with all of our wanting and a realisation that we are incapable of doing anything about it. In return, God’s grace is the gift that’s on offer. If I’m honest, it is the times when I have felt at my weakest that I have understood God’s grace the most. In times of failure, loneliness, vulnerability, it’s hit home again just how much Jesus loves me, even when I am so unlovely. When captivated again by God’s grace, I’m surprised that we don’t all get a bit more excited at the prospect of laying our weaknesses bare before God!

The reality is weakness doesn’t somehow feel nicer just because it’s an opportunity to grow closer to God. It’s still painful, exposing and frustrating. But if His strength comes into its own through us, then it seems like something worth going through. We only have to look at Jesus’ physical weakness, as he submitted to the cross, to see how God’s amazing power can work through weaknesses.

So during this Advent time, as we contemplate Jesus coming in the world as a weak and vulnerable child, perhaps have a think about your own response to the weakness in your life. How can we allow God’s grace to impact us in the face of our failings? When do we need to submit to Him in our weakness, rather than trying to fix it ourselves? Where can we encounter Him and be empowered by Him knowing that, despite our unloveliness, we are truly loved by The King?