Saturday, June 2, 2012

IS WEAKNESS REIGNING OR IS CHRIST REIGNING IN WEAKNESS?

Of course, perfectly timed, today, from the Daily Devotional Each Day a New Beginning I read the following:

"We create problems for ourselves because we think we need to be more than we are...Fear hinders us; it prevents full involvement from the experiences we are given to grow on.  When we withdraw from a situation in order to save ourselves from failure, we have chosen instead another kind of failure:  failure to take all we can from life, failure to be all that we can be.  Every experience can move us forward in the understanding of ourselves (and our God).  When we withdraw, we stay stuck in a world we need to leave behind."

I have come to realize I've sat in fear for quite some time.  Consequently, I struggled to move forward.  Eventually the struggle became too great.  At that point, I found myself walking headlong into all that I disapprove of and fear in my own life.  While I must admit the hardships encountered as I've walked this path have been many and painful, surprisingly, the benefits seem to have the upper hand. 

I want to acknowledge and embrace my weaknesses for in so doing I am free.  Free to know where I am weak and free to let Christ reign in my weakness.  I think sometimes we accept the lie that Christ reigning in our weaknesses means we deny our weaknesses and work to control them on our own.  Of course nothing could be further from the truth.  But, it is indeed part of the divine mystery that complete acceptance and embracing (and by that I mean a FULL ON FRONTAL HUG - no Christian side hugs here) of those things we hate most about ourselves is the very thing that will begin the process of us being set free from them by the power of Christ.