My Grace Is Sufficient

How can it be that "my strength is made perfect in weakness"? (2 Cor 12:9).

It is Jesus who is speaking about the strength he offers, but it applies to me: it is when I am weak that I am strong. Few of us want to be weak, however. Like Invictus, we believe that we can be the "master of my fate" and conquer as Nelson Mandela did who used the lines as inspiration during his imprisonment on Robben Island. It worked for him, didn't it?

And yet, it didn't really. At least not in the way we ordinarily interpret the words. What worked for him was endurance and faith. He fought injustice but wouldn't become dispirited when he couldn't see the victory. What he and the poet had control over was the "unconquerable soul," not the changing - or in his case, unchanging - circumstances of daily life. Mandela had faith in his own goodness and dignity and the rightness of his cause...and faith in the power of love, not hate.

"Love never fails," 1 Corinthians:13 tells us. God is love, so God never fails. This is where the weakness triumphs. When I put God in charge of the situation, I choose to be strong - and not foolishly headstrong -  and recognize that someone more capable than I will do a better job.

St. Paul wanted God to remove a "thorn" from his life and was told that "my grace is sufficient." The victory in this instance was the ability to endure the process, not escape from it. Perhaps it's a bit like birth: the process is unavoidable if the outcome is to be successful.

God tells the prophet Zechariah (4:6)"not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit" will the Temple be rebuilt. The psalmist David counsels that "God takes...delight...(in) those who await his faithful care." (Psalm 147) St. Peter reassures us that "His divine power gives us everything we need..e"(2Peter 1:3) St. Paul promises that "my God shall supply all your need out of his riches...) Philippians 4:19

In my weakness, that's a blank check that I want to take to the bank.