“Therefore, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:10)
Weakness (astheneo) to be weak, infirm, deficient in strength, weakness, feebleness, bodily infirmity, state of ill health, sickness, frailty, imperfection, suffering, affliction, distress, calamity. (Interlinear for the Rest of Us by William D. Mounce)
Of all places, I found myself “deficient in strength” on vacation at Magic Kingdom in Disney World. The day before our big excursion to Magic Kingdom, I threw my back out on the golf course. My playing partners had to carry me into the house. Facing the daunting task of walking miles in the Florida heat with a bad back, I decided to rent one of those motorized scooters. The scooter made it tolerable, but I still didn’t like being weak and feeble while my family was trying to get their money’s worth at Disney World.
For those of you who have been to Disney World, you know how great it is. Mickey, Donald, Goofy and the boys provide some great and memorable times with the family. Of course, you also know about the lines. The unofficial “patience rule” of Disney World is that for every 5 minutes of fun you have, you must wait 2 hours. The heat, the large crowd, the lines, and the inflated prices can turn any good Christian family into raging idiots by late afternoon. But this was not God’s will for The Percival’s on this day. For on this day, my weakness turned into strength.
It happened like this. As my family was in line for a ride, my wife forgot something in her purse, which I was carrying in my scooter. She motioned me over as they were about to get on the ride. When I got there to give her what she needed, the ride attendant unclipped the rope of the ride, helped me out of my scooter, and made sure I got on the ride with my family. I had never thought about riding anything on this day, but I could sit just fine, and hold on for dear life, and my back was fine. I just couldn’t walk. So, I rode the ride with my family. When the ride was finished, I didn’t think much of it. I planned on hanging with the family and not riding any more rides. It was at this moment that the Percival’s discovered the greatest loophole in Disney World history. When you have a weak, feeble, crippled guy in your group, you just send him in his scooter to the front of the line, and him and his group don’t have to wait. Disneyworld turned my weakness into a great strength.
God makes the strong weak, and the weak strong. He used the “weakness “of being a shepherd in the wilderness for 40 years to make Moses the deliverer of the Hebrew people from Egypt. He used the younger and “weaker” brother Jacob to become the family patriarch, rather than his strong brother Esau. He used a “weak” Shepard boy to defeat Goliath, (David), and a “weak” man of insecurities, and disloyalties (Simon Peter) to be the “Rock of the Church.”
God’s glorious time with us as the 2nd person of the Trinity in Jesus Christ was surrounded in weakness. Jesus, God with us was born in a barn, raised in a small town, worked as a carpenter, and demonstrated how to be strong when weak. Jesus’ ultimate “weakness” was the cross, where he became temporarily deficient in strength, to make us stronger.
Our surrender to Christ was permeated by weakness. Admitting our weakness without him, confessing our weakness, and bowing and kneeling for strength. In our salvation, our weakness is made strong by surrendering our lives to the one who made us strong through his death on the cross.
“In Christ” we are strong when we are weak. God uses deserts, denials, barns, donkeys, Big Brothers, Giants, and virtually everything at his disposal, including Disney world to make us weak, so that we are strong In Him. Let’s embrace His sanctifying work in our lives, and keep on Building His Church, Uniting His People, and Bringing Him Glory.
