Our Weakness Is Our Strength
Consider your own calling, brothers and sisters.
Not many of you were wise by human standards,
not many were powerful,
not many were of noble birth.
Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise,
and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong,
and God chose the lowly and despised of the world,
those who count for nothing,
to reduce to nothing those who are something,
so that no human being might boast before God. (1 Cor 1:26-29)
Any of us, who attempt to live our faith as completely as possible, will be able to say the same thing: it is not us at work when great things happen.
Whenever we abandon ourselves to the infinite possibilities of God, we find that He fills us with what we need when we need it. God does not leave us alone. He is with us every step of the way.
It is a wonderful mystery to know that the more we let go, the more God can enter our lives and direct us.
St. Paul knew this mystery quite well.
He reminded the early Church that, even though they were not wise or powerful or influential, God entered their lives in such a way as to enable them to impact their world.
We are the weak ones. We are the foolish ones. We are the powerless ones.
God is the one who is strong and wise and powerful. And God loves us immensely. He fills our weakness with His power and enables us to do great things. All we have to do is get out of the way and allow Him to operate through us.
That is the hard part, though.
Because we are weak, frail, mortal creatures, we tend to look for ways to become stronger. We tend to want to dominate, to be in charge. It goes against our nature to let go and allow someone else to use us.
It is only in our weakness, however, that we can truly be strong.
FAITH ACTION: While you pray today, ask God to give you the humility that you need to accept your weaknesses.