2 Corinthians 12:9-10
9 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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Isaiah
40:28-31
28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The
Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not
grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 He gives strength to the weary and increases
the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young
men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
Some of you may
know that I had surgery in the middle of July. This went very well, but is
taking sometime to recover from. I was signed up to help out at the Holsworthy
Summer School which came two weeks after surgery, and I was deemed fit to work.
Nearly 70 students from the local primary schools came to HCC to have some fun
and learning and start preparing for September. I was looking forward to this
and threw myself in. But… I forgot that I was only TWO weeks post op and that
walking around the school site multiple times in a day may not be a good idea –
which I learnt the hard way. By the end of Monday I was aching. When I spoke to
a colleague about why I had to sit down, well, I got an earful and was politely
told that I should have said something. But I was fine – in pain and discomfort
– but fine. As humans we have a real problem with admitting weakness. For the
rest of that week, I spent more time sat down, I got out of helping with PE
(bonus!) and everyone was taking time to make sure that I was ok, so that I
could do the best I could. And you know what, when you’re not worried about
over doing it, you can get more stuck in!
During this time,
I had the Hillsong song “Cornerstone” going round my head, particularly the line
“weak made strong, in the saviours love”. But what does that mean, how does it
make a difference? To be weak, to admit and show weakness, is hard. We are
exposing part of ourselves that isn’t “shiney” and strong but instead revealing
a vulnerability. In interviews, some people will try to pass of their
weaknesses as strengths – “Oh, I’m an overworker” – because they don’t want to
seem less than the other candidates by admitting flaws, or weaknesses. And its
even worse when you’re approaching the almighty, all powerful God, the one who
made everything, and is in everything. I don’t know about you, but I feel that
I need to hide the “not good” things and the weaknesses and present my best
self before God. Despite the fact that God is all knowing, he knows everything
about me, and he’s all loving – he loves me, just the way I am, with my
imperfections and weaknesses. And that doesn’t mean that I should stay that
way, but it does mean that I don’t need to hide them.
I was really
scared of letting people down at summer school, and despite several people
telling me to take it easy, I felt that I had to play my part to not lose face.
But God already knew that I was going to have surgery 2 weeks earlier, He knew
what my recovery was going to be like, and He went before me. If I’d been able
to trust that his Grace was enough and that I could be strong in him, I would
have seen the team around me, the willingness and ability to work together and
support each other. And I would have seen that God was ready to meet me where I
was, not where I was pretending to be.
This pandemic may
have felt like a time of weakness for you. A loss or change of routine and
structure, a change of role, a grief over the inability to live life as you did
before. Even the thought of coming back to church may have felt like a source
of weakness – if everyone else can, why can’t I?
God want’s the
best for us. In 2 Corinthians 12, God tells Paul that his Grace is sufficient
and his power is made perfect in weakness. Paul didn’t have an easy life. He
started off persecuting Christians only to meet the risen Jesus and start
serving him. He faced imprisonment, persecution, disgrace and condemnation. Yet
here is God telling Paul that, basically, God is bigger than that. By accepting
weakness, Paul realised, and I’m trying to, that God’s full grace, glory and
power can be seen in our lives. To embrace weakness, we have to drop any
pretences and masks we hide behind, we have to step away from the façade that
is hiding our truth from God, and through that acceptance, God can work in us,
strengthening us, bringing us to a place of further wholeness.
The life cycle of
a butterfly is fascinating, and kind of gross. When a caterpillar goes into its
cocoon, it turns into a soup from which a butterfly is formed. It’s a messy and
complex process. By admitting our weakness, we are taking a step further
forward in being transformed into the image of God. We are saying that we can’t
do this on our own. And God doesn’t care when we say it, whether it’s the
second we realise we need help, or when we are on our – either literal or
metaphorical – knees. God only want’s the best for us, not by protecting us
from all harm, but being the strength we require to get through our challenges and
become stronger in Him.
Going back to
Paul, he says that he delights in weakness – why? Because it shows God’s power,
through us. For those times when we can’t yet we still do, it shows the world
that there is something more, that maybe this great dude in the sky is a bit
more real than they admitted. But to show them this, we need to drop our
shields, accept God’s love, and take his hand. When we are weak, we are made
strong. God is there to catch us.
Jesus’ invitation
to you today is this: Matthew 11:28-30
28 “Come to
me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from
me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your
souls. 30 For my yoke is
easy and my burden is light.”
