Like most pastors, I live with a constant realization of my own weaknesses. It's almost impossible to be a pastor and not be aware of some of your greatest weaknesses - there's always some little old lady who fills out a comment card every week and is happy to remind you. You don't talk loud enough. You don't speak slow enough. You preach too long. You didn't call me this week when I had my ingrown toenail removed...
There are times when others don't recognize some of my weaknesses, but I'm acutely aware of them. Sometimes I don't think as clearly or as quickly as I wish I did. I have to work really hard to prepare lessons and sermons, while they come easy to some of my friends. I'm not the most gifted guy in virtually any room I walk in to. Nor am I the most original thinker - I rarely come up with new ideas that are mine alone.
My weaknesses used to bother me quite a bit, but I'm learning to lean into them. 1 Corinthians 2:4-5 say "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power." Later on, in the second letter to the Corinthians, Paul celebrates his weakness even further. "[God's] power is made perfect in weakness" (12:9)
See, the way I read it is that if the objective is to demonstrate the power of God to the world, my weakness is a decided advantage.
2 comments:
Instead of waterboarding, we should be using the removal of ingrown toemails as a form of torture. That is an other-worldly pain!
I realize I shouldn't be focused on that small snippit from your post, but I did. :)
Speak louder, slower, and shorter. Then visit the poor lady with the ingrown toenail.
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