An Easter Message
Happy Easter Folks! I hope you are having a blessed day.
This morning, I was faced with a slight dilemma. I wanted to write about God and give glory to him on this special day, but what to write about, I did not know. Many of the topics that came to mind expressed my displeasure with the ever-growing resistance to the Christian faith, and those that didn't, served to highlight why I continue to believe. In short, I found that I am a bit disgruntled with where the world is headed spiritually, and I wanted to either grumble about it, or defend my position. 😆
Instead, I have opted to write about something completely different! As usual, this piece is inspired by happenings in my daily life...
Recently, I received an anonymous comment on this blog from a lady (I assume) who needed to vent about a failed relationship... or to be more accurate, a failed partner. Because as I read through the comment, the sentiments seemed to be more about how she became progressively disappointed in her partner's personality, than about, instances of mistreatment, or a multitude of fights and disagreements, as I am used to hearing about in such cases.
Indeed, it was such that by the end of her comment, and in her next comment after that, she had begun to describe the guy (I assume), very poorly. She called him nagging, defensive, and weak amongst other things. But out of all the terms she used, the term weak in particular, stuck with me. Somehow this word struck me as an odd disappointment to have. It made me ask questions like:
- Did he think or give the impression that he was strong?
- Does she think she is strong?
- Do I think I am strong? And finally,
- Do people in general, live their lives thinking that they are strong?
Now it may be because I am short, skinny, and sickly, that I find this presumption peculiar. Because for me, any life or death, fight or flight situation, can only have one of three conclusions:
- Take it like a man
- Die honourably, or should worst come to worst,
- Take it like a man and die honourably. 😀
Thus I've never really had the luxury of thinking of myself as strong in a physical sense. Likewise in a mental sense, my illness is a constant test of my patience, willpower, and all around mental fortitude. So I know I'm not that strong there either. But most of all in a spiritual sense, I am not only reminded, but often disheartened at my own weakness, because my sins continue to pile up despite all the moral standards I hold dear.
As a result, weakness has become a subject that lies quite close to home for me, and I have never really seen it as a "bad" thing. But even for those of you who are taller, bigger, and healthier than I, there is no doubt in my mind that you can relate with me on at least one of those 3 planes above. Which is why I find it surprising that there might be people who think of themselves or others as fundamentally strong.
This surprises me not only because I am a small, skinny, and sickly man, but also because I am a Christian. As a Christian, the idea of self-proclaimed strength is foreign to me. Even the expectation of strength, is far-fetched. The bible reminds us that we are all like clay jars, fragile and easily broken... and that any strength we possess is of Him who made us (2 Corinthians 4:7).
So when I read this lady's comment calling her friend weak in a derisive manner, I was confused by it. Everybody is weak. The Lord's strength is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). The Beatitudes show favour to the weak (the meek, the sad, the poor in spirit). Weakness is in a sense, both the human condition, and the necessary condition, to be an instrument of God...
And so dear readers, today as we rejoice and celebrate the fact that our Lord lives, I thought I might remind the world of the importance of weakness. For we celebrate because we are weak: Because of our weakness, Jesus died for us; Because in our weakness, Jesus rose for us. And because through our weakness, Jesus works in us.
That is why, 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 Corinthians 12:10