Strength and Weakness

I attended my first men's breakfast recently - my first at this church, I mean. I've done a terribly good job of being distant and unengaged at my church - particularly among the general congregation. The senior pastor and I have a good relationship and I'm on familiar enough terms with many...but many more I wouldn't know the names of or wouldn't connect names to faces, if I were pressed.

I think this stems from my experiencing such dramatic transformation among the small group of men I have come to know and trust well...and the fact that none of them attend my church. Its unfortunate that I find myself unwilling to extend similar trust and risk among others whom I see every Sunday (well, many Sunday's at least). I am, to an extent, working to change that by the way.

As breakfast ended and we came to the time of announcements and the morning's agenda, our pastor was called upon to kick things off. He is better than I at maintaining the daily devotional according to our published "read the bible in a year" schedule and chose a verse he'd read that morning (I believe) to remind us of our need to lift one another up: "We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up," Romans 15:1-2. His message, generally speaking, was a reminder that we who are strong in Christ should look for opportunities to lend our strength to others who may be weak. He also alluded to the concept that we are each, individually, both weak and strong at different times in our lives and, potentially, in different circumstances. So, in relationship, we are called upon to offer strength into another man's weakness knowing that we might one day be leaning on the strength of others even as we come to feel weak.

I agree. Though I found myself thinking of another concept having to do with strength and weakness...one that had me searching through the Bible in hopes that I wasn't completely unsupported by scripture in this idea: God is made strong in my weakness. Turns out, Eureka! and Hallelujia! that I am not completely off-book (although it was probably a song lyric that I remembered moreso than a scripture reference, to be honest). 2nd Corinthians 12:9 has Paul saying, "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'"

For me "power" and "strength" are somewhat synonymous (though we could certainly go down a long path differentiating the two) and so I find myself caught between two verses having to do with strength and weakness...one in which I am called to be strong and the other in which I rejoice in God's strength made perfect when I am weak. So, if God's power is made perfect in my weakness and I am called to be strong in the midst of another man's weakness...what am I to make of that!?

I believe God is a God of relationship and that He utilizes His people in the midst of circumstance to deliver on His promises. I believe that genuine relationship among, well, "believers" requires genuine risk and that genuine risk requires our willingness to be genuinely weak. We are not the hero's of our stories - we are victims and perpetrators and the greyness within which we live, while sometimes revealing momentary and unique strength, is far more often a reflection of our deepest weaknesses and failings.

I believe that appearing weak is the most difficult thing for a man to do - and it is often only that: appearing. To be truly weak to the point of truly needing another - any other, particularly a man or a father or a friend - may be the deepest and most compromising crack at the bottom of the dark chasm that separates us from God.

But...

There is incredible hope to be had, not in spite of this weakness but because of it! Among the men whom I trust and love I sometimes, though rarely, dare to be truly weak. In those moments I am begging for and requiring them to be stronger than I. Through that time, among believing men who are for me and for one another, I believe God gives these men His strength - inviting them to deliver on His pledge to perfect His power only in my weakness.

And so, in those transcendent moments, we are fulfilling through one another the promise of God to His people.