“Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)
Imagine, the next time someone criticizes you, listening very calmly to the criticism and then saying: “You know, you just made me sound much better than I really am.”
Yes, it might be a rather cheeky thing to say—it could be used as just another form of self-defense—but that isn’t my point. My point is really the opposite: the grace of Christ not only allows us to see the truth about our weaknesses, but it even allows us boast in them—and when we do so, it’s good for everyone.
Boasting in a weakness is different from accepting it. Boasting in a weakness, for Christian believers, is abandoning the self to rejoice all the more in Jesus Christ. It’s confessing honestly who we are, warts and all, in the confidence that such weaknesses are not the final or most important word. A greater, kinder, and more forgiving word has been spoken for each one of us in the life of Jesus Christ.
So we can be honest about how weak we all are, even how bad we are. Speaking with such honesty blesses our neighbors and allows them to be honest, too. It “levels the field” and sets us all before the kindness of our Christ.
LET US PRAY: Lord, you know my weaknesses. You know my sins. I’m sorry you had to see and know all that. Thank you for not forcing me to look at it every day. Thank you for your beauty, your mercy, and your strength. Thank you for being the better person who I cannot be, and thank you for being that person for me. Give that consolation to all who struggle with weakness and sin. Amen
Pastor Steven K. Gjerde
Zion, Wausau
