Strong Enough to Admit my Weakness

 

We all want to be strong. Strong enough to do it on our own. Strong enough to open the jar of pickles without help. Strong enough to meet our own needs as well as help others. We see weakness as a sign of, well, weakness. But scripture looks at it a little differently. Here’s a few examples:

[2Co 12:9 NIV] 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.

[2Co 12:10 NIV] 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.

[Rom 8:26 NIV] 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

[1Co 1:27 NIV] 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

The more we know about God, the more we realize that, by comparison, all of us are weak. Until we recognize this, we continue to attempt to operate in our own power. Its like a toddler that insists he can do something, “By myself!” When we are able to humble ourselves and admit that we are weak, we open ourselves up to the great possibilities of God’s strength.

The same applies as we interact with others and our environment. As long as we are holding onto the idea that we don’t need help, we won’t ask for it, and we won’t receive it. In this we limit ourselves greatly. I have a hard time walking. I fought this reality for a long time. I kept thinking that if I just pushed through it, walked more regularly, etc I could build back up to my previous ability to walk several miles in a day. Years ago I walked in the Breast Cancer 3-Day walk and did 27 miles in one day and 60 over a 3-Day weekend. I’m not a wimp. I’m not afraid of training. I kept trying and the ankles kept getting worse and worse. Then my physiatrist sent me to a special PT to have my ankles evaluated and turns out, both of my ankles received sprains in the past that, because of my connective tissue disorder, did not fully heal. If I walk too much, typically between ¾ and 1 mile, they flare up and I essentially have a sprained ankle, or two, for days or weeks. No amount of training or pushing through is going to ever fix them. So now what? I had a weakness, do I let myself get stuck in it, or do I accept help? Well, I love my family and I wanted to be able to do things with them, things that involve more than 2,000 steps in a day, so I had to swallow my pride. I became an ambulatory wheelchair user. What this means is that sometimes I walk, sometimes I use a wheelchair. It all depends on distance and how many spoons I have at the time. It takes an extra measure of humbleness to be an ambulatory wheelchair user because people are not kind. When they see you get up from the chair and walk, they often assume you are “faking it.” That and you get to experience the dark underbelly of accessibility. But that’s for another post, or two…

Another aspect of this is accepting help from people. Let’s face it, no matter how capable you are, you can’t do it all. At some point, you’re going to need somebody to lean on. My husband would, hopefully, tell you that I’m getting better at this, but I’ve got room to grow. I still have to practically sit on my hands when he or my son step in to help with something I feel like I should be doing. But at least I ask, and I’m willing to let them do it, and I’m so grateful when they do.

I can pray this because his divine power has bestowed on us everything necessary for life and godliness through the rich knowledge of the one who called us by his own glory and excellence.  2 Peter 1: 3

Here's the Thing: God has given us everything we need for life and godliness. That’s not necessarily packaged inside ourselves! He gave us spouses and kids and parents and siblings and friends and pastors and lots of other relationships. He’s provided wheelchairs and gluten free food and seat canes and braces and C-Pap machines and a whole host of other aides. Let’s use the rich knowledge of God to correctly use the gifts He’s provided!