Tales of the Restoration: Weakness

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 1 Corinthians 1:27, ESV

I have been riveted by pictures of mountains of rubble caused by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. I am saddened by their devastating loss. How will they ever rebuild? How will they even clear so much rubble? Sometimes life feels like that. The destruction is massive and we are not up to the task.

Our enemy, ever an opportunist, uses this discouragement. When Nehemiah began leading a massive rebuilding effort with inadequate resources and inexperienced builders, his enemies attacked with words instead of with weapons. "What are those feeble Jews doing?"

God is creative. Satan isn't. He is still using the same tactics thousands of years later. As soon as we begin rebuilding after a loss he begins attacking confidence. "What dd you think you're doing? You aren't strong enough, physically, emotionally, spiritually, relationally...to rebuild this huge mess."

If the enemy successfully shifts our focus to our own feebleness, he wins, because he is right. We are not strong enough to rebuild desolated lives.

The good news is, we are not the foremen of our own restoration and we are not building alone. I love Nehemiah's phrase "The good hand of my God was upon me". That changes everything. If the restoration project is our own, it is doomed to failure. If it is God's, the end product may look different than our blueprint, but it won't fail.

When the enemy paused to take a breath in the midst of hurling insults, Nehemiah resisted the urge to hurl insults back. Instead, like a bullied younger brother he turned to someone much stronger. He hid behind him begging, "Beat them up for me, God". It was true Nehemiah and his Jews were feeble. But God was not.

We are feeble. God is not.

If the enemy is whispering discouragement to you, saying you are too weak, turn to the good hand of your God. He has his hand on you. Truly.

Until next time,
Blessings,
Beth

For background information about Nehemiah's story, see earlier blogs entitled Tales of the Restoration.

Weak, but Indispensable!

I am inept at sports that involve a ball.  I have an eye condition that was originally identified by the P.E. teacher.  She knew there had to be some physical issue.  No one could have such terrible depth perception unless there was something wrong.  

My worst elementary school nightmare repeated itself every time we were forced to play basketball, volleyball, t-ball or any other game whose name ends in ball.  The two best kids were named team captains and they took turns choosing which of the other kids would be on their team.  I started to sweat right away.  The tall, strong, fast, athletic kids were chosen one by one.  Then the average, but not outstanding kids were chosen.  That left me and the one or two other uncoordinated, slow, or fat kids waiting to be picked.  Finally the other losers were reluctantly chosen and some unlucky team was stuck with me.  No one ever wanted me.  Why would they?  I was not an asset to the team.  In fact, try as I did to stay out of the way, I usually found a way to help my team lose.  It is still that way.  My family tries to be nice about it, but nobody, except my tenderhearted self-sacrificing husband, ever really wants me to play on their team, even when we are playing Wii with virtual balls.  I am pretty sure that I have never been indispensable to my team in any sport that involves a ball.

Fortunately for me, after elementary school, a person can pretty much avoid playing with balls if they try hard enough.

There are other kinds of weakness, though.  A few years into my first marriage, my world fell apart.  I was airlifted out of my chosen role as perfect wife and mother in the perfect Christian home and deposited into a barren desert world of broken family.  Once again I found myself to be the weakest.  All of my loudly spoken formulas for life and ideas about making life work were smashed. I felt like my failed marriage made me a detriment to my Christian brothers and sisters, kind of a loser on the team. I offered to resign from the board of the ministry where I served.

Fortunately for me, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a body and not like a sports team.

I have read 1 Corinthians 12 about how Christians of every race and rank make up one body many times.  Somehow I never really thought about the wonderful little verse sandwiched in the middle of the passage though.

On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.  I Corinthians 12:22

The human body has prominent, visible parts, and hidden interior parts.  It has beautiful parts and not so beautiful parts, but it doesn't have any spare parts.  Likewise, the body of Christ doesn't have a single unnecessary part.  The Bible calls me "indispensable".  Each of us, no matter what our story, is needed in the body of Christ.  Weak or strong, as long as I am connected to Jesus, the head, I am indispensable.

When I am Weak

If there is no struggle, there is no progress.  -Frederick Douglas

My son called this morning.  He was struggling.  He and I probed and wrestled with the issue.  Ever so gently, God, I think, led me to understand.  Some of the roots of his struggle stem from mistakes his father and I made when he was growing up.  At times Ethan* was too harsh, correcting his son out of his own rage.  I was too weak to stand up and make it stop.  Other times, I did harm directly.  I dealt with Cal's* normal teenage boy struggles out of my own pain instead of out of God's grace.  This morning I asked for his forgiveness with tears streaming down my face.  I am deeply sorry for my part in his pain.

Cal feels like he has to be perfect.  Intellectually he knows better, but to him, it feels like struggling equals being a failure.  This of course, is a lie from the pit.

I, on the other hand, do not really struggle with perfectionism.  In fact, just a dash more perfectionism in my personality might be healthy.  There is only one arena, where I always wanted to be, strove to be, thought I was, nearly perfect.  Parenting.

Now I see with razor sharp clarity that my parenting is far from perfect.  I am even a source of insecurities that continue to plague my son.  Even in my one area of strength, I am deeply flawed and weak.  My pride is wounded.  In fact, I have to acknowledge that I have no cause for pride at all.  

This morning I reminded Cal that it is good to reach higher, to stretch beyond the things we could easily grasp, even if this means that we struggle.  The struggle is a positive part of the process.  I want him to treat himself with grace.  That mini sermon is from God to me, too.

I must also receive God's forgiveness, and forgive myself for my failure.  I am so, so glad that God is bigger than my struggle.  He is big enough to take my sin and my failures on himself.  He has forgiven me.  He has even gone beyond forgiveness.  He has taken what was evil, what the evil one wanted to use to wreak havoc, and used it for good.  Right now, today, he is using it to strengthen.

I find it comforting that the apostle Paul went before me in struggling with weakness.  Maybe in Paul's case the weakness was a physical one rather than a failure, but the principle is the same.  God's power is made perfect in weakness.  He can use even "a messenger of Satan" for His good purpose.

...a thorn was given to me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan 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 12:9  

So, I will confess my sins, acknowledge my failures, accept forgiveness, and learn to be content with weakness.  I will even join Paul and boast of my weaknesses.  "For when I am weak, then I am strong."

The struggle is a positive part of the process.

*Names have been changed to protect both the innocent and the guilty.