I’ve been reading about friends who are running marathons, triathlons, climbing tall hills, going on adventurous hikes, and exciting vacations. I remember the days when I felt strong. It’s everyone’s goal to be strong, isn’t it? After all, who aspires to be weak? But just as strength has its place, so weakness has its place and purpose…in God’s plan. A weakness that becomes strength…if we allow God to use it for good.

Paul writes about this in 2 Corinthians 12. We don’t know the details, but there was something he considered “a thorn in the flesh” that made him weak. It was given “to keep me from becoming conceited.” He prayed three times for it to be taken away, but God’s response was this:

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (V 9)

Paul concludes, “I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (V 10)

It’s not usually our first response, is it? We’re not naturally attracted to weakness and pain. In fact, usually, we do everything we can to avoid it. We fight it, we cry over it, we pray to be delivered from it. But before it leaves us, there is something to be gained if we determine to not waste our weakness or pain. What can be gained from weakness? Two things:

Grace… and strength.

Grace is the God-given gift that allows us to be thankful even in our sorrows. It allows us to be kind and patient with others when we feel that we’ve been shorted ourselves. Grace reaches out of pain and weakness to bring hope and encouragement to others when you most need it yourself. God’s grace speaks comfort, contentment and peace when every other part of our mind and body are screaming to escape the pain and sorrow we feel. Grace fills our cup so it overflows onto others when we feel empty. Grace sustains.

And what about strength? Where is it revealed in the face of weakness? First, there is the strength that comes from God when we stop thrashing about in our own efforts. I remember “rescuing” a fellow as part of my lifesaving test. After months of training, I dove into the shallow end of the olympic pool and swam forcefully toward the “victim” who was thrashing the water in the deep end. His wild antics to “save himself” were counterproductive, wearing him out and not bringing him any closer to safety. And when I reached him he doubled his efforts to twist and writhe and splash, fighting my every effort to take him under my arm and pull him to the pool’s edge. But then (thankfully, or I never would have passed my test) he surrendered his efforts to my leading and allowed me to bring him to safety. It’s like that with us and God too. When we come to the end of ourselves and find ourselves hopelessly weak, it is precisely then that God’s strength can carry us away from the depths that threaten to consume us. His strength is best made known in our weakness; it is when we stop fighting that he can bring the victory we seek in our life. The strength comes from his indwelling Spirit who always speaks truth.

I remember a picture of a mighty lion on the wall of the U of I transplant unit. The caption read, “Courage and strength to all who walk these halls.” I suppose none of us who walked those halls ever so slowly, 7 laps to a quarter mile, felt strong. But there is strength to be found in taking one courageous step after another. It is the strength that perseveres after cancer has done its worst. It’s the same courageous strength that allows you to get out of bed when you feel depressed, to reach out when you feel all used up, and to keep believing truth when you feel like giving up.

There is strength in weakness. God’s strength and sustaining grace. Soak it in today while you are strong, so you can draw on it when you are weak.