I'm taking this Advent season to reflect on the weakness of God. By the weakness of God I mean the less than powerful ways God often chooses to reveal himself: a baby in a manger or dying on a cross.

The weakness of God moves us to help the weak.

In previous posts I've mentioned that meditating on the weakness of God first produces an offense. We don't like the idea of God being weak. We spend our lives running away from weakness. It's embarrassing. What we like about God is that he's strong.But if we can push past that offense we find ourselves hearing God's voice in new ways, which in turn produces a new sense of humility. We are not so ashamed to admit our own weaknesses when we realize that God often chooses to make himself present in the midst of our weaknesses.

Mediating on the weakness of God moves you to hear the weak.

This leads me to my next thought: when you meditate on the weakness of God you begin to hear the voice of the weak. Most of us are trained to just hear the voice of the powerful, the successful, or the beautiful. But when you are no longer offended by weakness and able to walk in humility, you start to hear the voice of the weak, the dismissed, the poor, the forgotten, and the marginalized. Humility trains your ears to hear new voices.Hearing these voices is a defining moment. Some people stop their ears. They don't want to hear these voices. It's too painful to know that there are so many hurting people. But many people are moved to do more than hear the weak.

Meditating on the weakness of God moves you to help the weak.

Once you start to hear the voice of the weak it won’t be long before you want to help the weak. You don't have to join a cause or save the world. Maybe you just send a card to the person divorced last summer when you realize that this is their first Christmas alone. It can be that easy.I hope that happens for you this Christmas season. Might Christmas be a time of hearing and helping the weak and not merely adding pounds to your waistline and presents to your closet.Question: I'm curious what voices you have come to hear over the past few years that you never heard before. Has it moved you to help them? Please leave a comment below. Thanks.STUCK: I originally asked for ten people to review my new book. I got many more than that and I sent them all a free PDF copy in exchange for a review on Amazon.com. I will send it to you too, as well as a free Kindle version once you post a review. Just email me.