Weaknesses & All

“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. 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.” 2 Corinthians 10: 9-10

I remember an exercise I completed in one of my classes while in my Marriage & Family Therapy program. We were talking about privilege and had to go through all the areas in life where we might have advantage or disadvantage when it comes to societal norms and hierarchy. Race, gender, weight, education, wealth, health, religion, sexuality, and others come to mind and the places where I and my classmates found ourselves. The room was filled with emotions as we looked at who had more privilege and who had less, who was more fortunate and less fortunate and what that meant for us and our future clients. We talked about pride and shame, fear and comfort, knowledge and ignorance, and everything in between. It was a very emotional day.

Thinking back on that day, I am faced with the knowledge of my privilege and disadvantage everyday, especially as we deal with COVID-19. My race, weight, health, and socioeconomic status are at the forefront of my mind daily as I think about what going outside means. Exposure, possible sickness, and recovery are just a few of the risks I have to consider with each trip outside of the safety of my home. There are times when I can’t help but feel weaker than others as I think about what it all means to my future. And as many of you probably know, it’s hard to feel Satisfaction when you feel at a disadvantage. How can you be Satisfied with life, or your circumstances when they mean you have weaknesses?

First of all, everyone has weaknesses. Everyone. There’s not a single person out there who doesn’t have to fight some demon or another to function in life. We all have something that is holding us to accountability (successfully or unsuccessfully) even if it’s just the guilt of being at the top of the pecking order when it comes to privilege. But for those of us who are more “everyday people” I’m sure if you look at your life you can name on or ten or a hundred things that make you “weaker” than the next person. It’s all of us. And do you know what it means when everyone has weaknesses? It means it’s normal. Normal people have them, and you are normal. If you embrace your shortcomings instead of trying to pretend like they don’t exist or wallowing in self pity because of them, it actually makes you stronger.

Paul talks about what it means to have the odds against you and how to live with that. He writes to the Corinthians “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. 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.” (2 Corinthians 10: 9-10) Paul knew better than anyone what it meant to be privileged. He was at the top of the food chain when he was Saul. Higher in education, race, religion, gender, sexuality, everything. But he wasn’t higher morally or spiritually. And when he changed his mindset and began to embrace his areas of weakness and grow stronger in them, he was persecuted for it. He lost his wealth, his status, his freedom. He began to appear truly weak in the eyes of man. But there was hope, because God says that our weaknesses allow for His perfection to shine through. It allows for us to find a new kind of strength: a strength in letting the will of God have the final say, weakness and all.

Weakness is God’s chance to prove His strength and perfect will for our lives. Can you remember a time when things looked worse than they ever did, and there seemed to be no way through, yet here you are. Still surviving and striving. No idea how you did it. Somehow He made a way. It’s ok to be Satisfied with that. It’s ok to find contentment in allowing God to take over and give you privilege where all you saw was discrimination and setback. Stop being so hard on yourself and find Satisfaction in weakness knowing that God will prevail. And if it’s God’s will that you prevail, then nothing and no one can stop it.