The Weakness of God - Advent (2)
The Weakness of God - Part Two
An Advent Meditation
This is Part Two of my Advent series on The Weakness of God.
Too often we celebrate the big story, the dramatic stories about God. But we overlook the simple things that God does. The weak things. Things that are seemingly unimpressive but nevertheless, profound.
“Weakness offends us in our own lives and it offends us in the life of God. ”
That’s why there were only a few people gathered around Jesus when he was born. And that’s why only a few people gathered around his cross at his death. Two of the most significant events in world history yet only viewed by a handful of people.
People didn’t understand the weakness of God. They didn’t understand what God was doing – in fact, they were offended by it and so they missed the moment, a moment when they could have encountered God.
I wonder if we are guilty of the same thing?
The Impact of Meditating on God’s “Weakness.”
As we take this Advent season to meditate on the weakness of God consider how it might impact you.
meditating on the weakness of God may cause you to be offended.
Like I said before, we much rather talk about strength than weakness. Weakness is offensive.
We all hate weakness. We all have things that embarrass us about our lives. We are ashamed of our body, our looks, our emotions. We’re ashamed of our health, our relational failures, and our finances. We are ashamed of the car we drive, the house we live in. I mean, the last thing we want is someone to drop by our house.
We’re ashamed of our age. We’re ashamed of our career, or lack of one. We’re ashamed that we aren’t more spiritual. We are ashamed of our sin and what tempts us.
Do you see what I’m saying here? Weakness offends us in our own lives and it offends us in the life of God. If we could eliminate weakness from our lives we’d do it in a heartbeat. So as we take this month to look at the weakness of God expect to be offended. We don’t like to think about it.
But listen to how the Bible describes God’s messiah…and the reaction of people to him:
He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by others, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Isaiah 53:2,3
People were offended at the messiah. He wasn’t what they wanted him to be. So weakness first offends us but if we can push past it, weakness can change us.
Meditating on the weakness of God will cause you to be humble.
If God reveals himself in weakness then maybe being weak isn’t so bad. Maybe I don’t have to hide my weakness. I can embrace it and even admit it.
Three things happen when you have the courage to reveal your weakness to others:
you stop having a secret.
you find out that there are many other people with the same weakness.
people can now help you.
But if you are offended by weakness you will never want to humble yourself.
meditating on the weakness of God will cause you to hear the voice of the weak.
Many 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.
meditating on the weakness of God will cause 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. I hope that happens this Christmas season.
Christmas is a perfect time to not only talk about weakness but to help the weak and forgotten. Where is there weakness around you and how might you offer your strength?
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