As members of the body of Christ we are often encouraged to identify our gifts. A cursory search on the web will parade scores of similar titles to: “Your spiritual gifts—how to identify and effectively use them”.
But a search on identifying our weaknesses primarily displays titles such as: “Determining your strengths and weaknesses”. My search engine even instinctively discarded weaknesses altogether by displaying other titles like: “How pastors can utilise their strengths” or “My personal strengths inventory in ministry”.
There is a growing trend on social media these days to glorify failure … a genre people enjoy to make themselves feel better.
This shouldn’t surprise us because weaknesses expose our failures. Even search engines don’t want to reveal them! However, there is a growing trend on social media these days to glorify our failures, and the failures of others, in what has been coined “failure porn”—a genre people enjoy to make themselves feel better.[1] This is an insidious form of sin that tempts us to savour the news of yet other Christians (and especially other Christian leaders) failing.
So how can we understand Paul’s stunning statement when he writes:
… 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 Cor 12:10).
Earlier in the same letter, Paul has urged the Corinthians not to “lose heart” (2 Cor 4:1,16). And there are numerous reasons why Paul himself might be tempted to lost heart:
- he suffered far beyond his ability to endure (2 Cor 1:8-9a);
- he was afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down;
- he had opponents turning believers against him (2 Cor 11:4-5)—to the point that the Corinthian church united in their common contempt against him;
- Satan himself was opposing his ministry, blinding the minds of unbelievers (2 Cor 4:3-4).
- he was acutely aware of feeling like a jar of clay (2 Cor 4:7)—outwardly wasting away (2 Cor 4:16).
Yet unlike the so called “super-apostles”, who boast in their knowledge and oratory, Paul is compelled to boast of his weaknesses. He refuses to boast about being caught to “the third heaven.” Rather, he wants to boast about God’s tough mercy of allowing (through Satan) a thorn that prevents him from stroking his conceit (2 Cor 12:1-8).
Paul’s weaknesses are probably beyond our experiences. But if we live life long enough, we will suffer our own “weaknesses” as we serve our Lord Jesus. Paul said as much: “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim 3:12). Not may be. Not might be. But will be persecuted.
Both hiding and parading our weaknesses, can be non-identical twins arising from the very same womb of conceit..
But there’s more. Once we start to scratch the surface of our hearts, we become painfully aware of our own failures in character, conviction, and competencies. Like David, we have hidden sins (Ps 51). Like the sinful woman, we have shame (Luke 7:36-49). Like the Corinthian church we can lack conviction concerning the truths of Christ (2 Cor 10). Like Paul we have navigated moments when we have felt so utterly burdened beyond our strength (2 Cor 1:8).
Perhaps, on the one hand, we do not readily share our weaknesses because of our pride. But on the other hand, this very same pride can incite us to glorify our weaknesses in failure porn. Both hiding and parading our weaknesses, can be non-identical twins arising from the very same womb of conceit.
Listen to Augustine of Hippo:
… And what is pride but an appetite for perverse exaltation? … This happens when a person is overly pleased with himself, and he is overly pleased with himself when he defects from that immutable Good which ought to please him far more than he pleases himself.[2]
Perverse Pride
To defect from that immutable (or unchanging) good is to defect from God! Thus, pride is our perverse exaltation to please ourselves … more than God. It is to live as if we don’t need God. Unlike my natural disposition to display strength by concealing or displaying my weaknesses, Paul was thrilled to make a pageant of his weaknesses to reveal, not his strength, but his utter dependence upon God.
Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us not rely on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. (2 Cor 1:9)
Later, he writes:
Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it (the thorn) away from me. 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. (2 Cor 12:8-9)
Christ’s power is “made perfect” by finishing its work of humbling Paul to depend on him. In other words, Christ’s power is best displayed when Paul’s weakness is most evident. It becomes a spectacle of Christ’s all sufficient grace. And since weaknesses give occasion for Christ’s power to be displayed, Paul will take pleasure in them. He will delight in them.
Far from partaking in failure porn, Paul throws the spotlight, not on himself, but on Christ’s power and Christ’s incalculable grace.
Getting O.L.D.
So how can we delight in our weaknesses like Paul? By embracing them as we get OLD.
Sorry for the cheesy acronym. But here’s a suggestion.
- Own our weaknesses
- Live in our weaknesses
- Delight in our weaknesses
Firstly, own our weaknesses
Isn’t that what our Lord Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane? As the author of Hebrews writes:
During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered (Heb 5:7-8)
Here is what appears to be Jesus’ nadir, when he confessed his weaknesses to his Father with fervent cries and tears. He asked his Father to take his cup of wrath away. But in the midst of his weakness, he also prayed “not my will, but your will be done”. Thus, he learned the obedience of depending on his Father to the point of death. In the combat leading to his arrest, he could have displayed his strength and asked his Father for 12 legions of angels (Mt 26:53). But instead, he submitted to his Father’s will in utter dependence.
Paul followed suit as he was flogged, imprisoned, and exposed to death again and again. He owned his weaknesses to display the power of Christ.
Our natural bent is to look strong in the face of adversity. Pride teaches us not to show any signs of weakness. Our natural preference metaphorically (or even physically!) is to be the toughest contestant in SAS Australia who endures quasi-military trials without tears. Even when we are asked what our weaknesses are in a job interview, the sage advice is to identify them in a way that communicates our strengths [3]. We don’t ordinarily know how to own our weaknesses because of the pride that suppresses it. Sadly, there can be a toxic culture at work, or home, or even in church where any expression of weakness is not culturally acceptable.
The antidote to pride is utter dependence upon God. It is to rely upon God like infants rely upon their parents.
On the other hand, if we display our weaknesses in order to say “look at me” or “look how far I’ve come through all my failures,” our pride can be equally poisonous.
Either way, the antidote to pride is utter dependence upon God. It is to rely upon God like infants rely upon their parents. For “out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength” (Psalm 8:2).
Own your weaknesses by relying on God. Name them, and confess them to God and to one another.
Secondly, live in our weaknesses
There is nothing like the school of suffering that teaches us to live in our weaknesses. For affliction causes us to cry out to God for help. Listen to Psalm 88
Lord, you are the God who saves me; day and night I cry out to you.
May my prayer come before you; turn your ear to my cry.
I am overwhelmed with troubles and my life draws near to death.
The Psalmist lives in his weaknesses by lamenting his situation [4]. Lament is not about self-pity. It is not grovelling in weakness. In the Psalms, lament involves urgent prayers to the only one who can put an end to our suffering and death. To lament like the Psalmists is to boldly cry out to God for help.
Soon after my first wife Bronwyn passed away in 2013, I remember curling up into a ball under a shower for what seemed like an eternity, with no physical or emotional reserve to go on. And it was the Psalms of lament that gave me the framework and vocabulary to live in my weaknesses.
Finally, delight in our weaknesses
As we boldly cry out to God for help, we can anticipate a day when our prayers will turn to praise even in our weaknesses. Lament does not end with a cry to God for help. It also anticipates a day when he says YES! Although he may not answer our prayers as we hope in this life, he will certainly answer them beyond our wildest imaginations at the resurrection because of his immeasurable grace. And it is this anticipatory praise that enables us to delight in our weaknesses now. And what we will be praising God for is his power, his strength, and his victory.
In the face of the greatest enemy, and our greatest nadir, we can proclaim:
“Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Cor 15:55-56)
Owning, living, and delighting in our weaknesses (as we utterly depend upon God) is the natural rhythm of the Christian life. And this includes our confession of sin, and God’s burden-lifting promise of forgiveness, which anticipate the praise for which our breath was created for, namely the glory of Christ.
[1] https://medium.com/the-mission/on-the-fetishization-of-failure-the-rise-of-failure-porn-7db47cd2fde1
[2] City of God, XIV.13. Italics mine.
[3] https://au.indeed.com/career-advice/interviewing/list-of-example-weaknesses-for-interviewing
[4] The majority of the Psalms in Book 3 of the Psalter are known as Psalms of Lament.
