The
worst fear for many of us, is that others may consider
us ignorant or incompetent. Consequently, we work hard
to conceal our weaknesses and reveal our strengths. We
highlight our achievements and avoid mention of our
failures. Our personal worlds take on glossy exteriors,
while below the surface we fear being found
out.
After
all, nobody like losers.The clumsy and uncoordinated
never get picked for the team. Those with few skills
have limited career options.
So,
we write resumes that our own mothers would hardly
recognize. We live in a world of bluff and bluster,
where image is everything. Yet, all the while, we sense
that our plastic shell is very brittle
.
The
Apostle Paul lived in no such bubble.
"If
I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my
weakness...I will boast all the more gladly about my
weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me...for
when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 11.30;
12.9-10).
Paul makes
no sense to the modern reader.
We
hide weaknesses rather than expose them. We boast in our
competencies, not our deficiencies. We highlight our
gifts, not our "gaps". In a world consumed by power,
fame, and success, our reservations about transparency
are understandable. We're in competition for admiration
and kudos. We crave the affirmation of others
.
Paul
would not have fit in!
He
recognized that our greatest testimony derives not from
our own ability but from Christ's victory through us. He
understood that no one is too weak to be used and no one
is so great that God needs them. The bottom line of our
effectiveness lies not in our capacity, but in
His grace .
We
think that weakness means useless. But nothing could be
further from the truth. Competence is not His first
criterion for choosing us. He looks for brokenness.
Because only the surrendered heart is a truly ready
vessel.
Perhaps
the greatest mistake we make, at times, is to
over-estimate the value of our abilities and
underestimate what the Lord can do through a simply
yielded life.
When
Christ works despite our weakness, we really have
something to talk about. Should our resumes have less of
us and more of Him? "Able to do great tasks for the
kingdom!" or "More yielded to Him now, than
ever"?
The
latter would be Paul's take, I suspect. May it become
ours .