Today's daily lesson comes from 2 Corinthians 12:10:
"For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses . . ."
Most of us see the weaknesses we have as qualities or characteristics to be worked around, hidden, overcome, or altogether denied. For most of us, the last thing in the world we would want to do is show weakness because doing so makes us subject to vulnerability. Achilles's heel must be kept hidden lest our vulnerability be found out.
But in one of the ironies of the Gospel, God wants us vulnerable. God desires that our weaknesses be recognized for what they are -- the place of entry for God's grace, mercy, and power.
It was said by one of William Blake's friends that Blake was a cracked vessel of a man, but the cracks "were where the light shined through."
It is in our cracked and broken places that the glory of God's grace shines through. It is in the place of our weakness that God's power is most indisputably evident. Therefore, our vulnerabilities, weaknesses and places of insecurity are not points of liability but instead the places of God's greatest and deepest gift in our lives -- the places where we know we cannot save ourselves, but only be saved by God.
So, like the Apostle Paul before us, we may plead and plead that our weaknesses be taken away. But in the end God reminds us that His "power is made perfect in our weakness" and therefore we too, like Paul, choose to no longer fight our weaknesses but instead learn to be content with and even embrace them for what they are -- the places where our deepest flaws both discover and reveal God's greatest mercies.
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