Weak and Strong

"And He has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.' Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me." --II Corinthians 12:9 (NASB)

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I am oftentimes astonished at how utterly powerless I am to control the circumstances of my life and those around me. And it is not so much that I am surprised that such things do happen to me, but rather that I myself, the great and mighty being which lives my life, cannot do anything about it. I suppose that everyone, whether they would profess it openly or not, would like to be thought of as strong, dependable, and brave. Everyone wants to be thought of as a hero, just like superman, just like wonderwoman, intelligent, strong, and unbeatable. Everyone wants to win. Everyone wants to be on top. In our secondary school culture and society, more and more I see and feel the pressure to be strong. And we all, in one way or another, answer that call to the best of our ability. But it also makes me wonder, just how many of us retreat towards the end of the day, and lay upon our beds and cry out in despair for just how really, utterly, and unequivocally weak and destitute we are of any true virtue of our own in our possession.

We all do our best to appear strong, to appear well thought out and put together, to avoid the shame of being human. We play God, the saint, the savior, but at the end the day we know that we have nothing. And I know that some people cannot deal with that. But it is all so very interesting.

At my church we have lately been going through the life of Sampson. What an intriguing character he is! And how appropriate for this subject. Sampson, a man who has been gifted with enormous physical strength, far beyond any other man in history, is a nazarite with a special vow, and is judge of Israel. One would think he would be a hero! One might think he could be a saint! A savior of Israel from their enemies, the Philistines! But Sampson, in all his strength and might, in all of his God-bestown gifts, was utterly powerless to keep his life from falling apart.

Sampson makes one bad choice after another, until even his own wife tries to kill him three times. And at the end of his life, his final act is his revenge on the Philistines. But what a wretched life to lead. How did it get this way? How is it that Sampson, judge of Israel, eventually became the bane of his own nation, his own people, and his family?

"My grace is sufficient for you," says the LORD, "for power is perfected in weakness." Sampson's strength did not come to him because he worked any harder than the Philistines, or even because he was an Israelite! It was because God decided to give it to him in order to fulfill his purposes for Sampson.

Sampson forgot whose strength it was. We forget too. At least I do.

So what does it mean to be weak, or to be strong? I suppose that when we are weak, as we always are, if we rely upon God, and trust that His "grace is sufficient", then his strength will will make us strong, and allow us to have His control to be in charge of our lives.