Strength of Weakness
The Apostle Factor is one of the neatest aspects of the New Testament. The Lord made several critical human resource selections from a mess of available options. Which sounds like many aspects of our life choices today. Those specific selections along with several other disciples, are the critical “ahah” or “humm” attachment points for the overall lessons we need to learn. These individuals have provided the really critical connections for countless generations of serious seekers. Those destined to become the Lord’s apostles and disciples were about as ordinary (yet uncommon), as any of us walking around today. Not necessarily as individuals, but as a group they encompassed nearly all of the personality and character quirks necessary for the rest of us to find our own personal, yet similar connections to God. At various stops along every seekers journey, we’ll see in one or more of these choices, a trace or even a concrete chunk of our own debris. These are the obstacles that we’ll never see in Jesus himself. For example in Paul, some of us can see the tremendous willpower which at one point kept us away from the Lord. We can also see the weakness of our own convictions, to know what we should be doing while we consistently do the wrong things. In Peter we can see the “oh no … no, no, no” trait of presuming that we know better than the Lord himself, of who we are, what’s best for us or for the world. In Thomas, we can see the lingering doubts that we’ve all experienced in our faith or in the ability of the Lord to do what He says He can do! As much as we won’t want to hear it, we can also find in Judas, a part of ourselves which for some momentary reason might cause us to turn our backs on the Lord. Jesus uses theirs and our own weaknesses to illustrate for us and sometimes others, the critical lessons which we need to acknowledge and absorb. Some might think it’s sacrilegious to compare ourselves to these men (and women for related lessons) who are now biblical icons. It is not. It was principally for these reasons that God chose and uncovered within these individuals, the same ingredients which are inherent to all of those who will become the children of God.
“The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke.” (John 13:22 ESV). None of us wants to acknowledge our weaknesses or our potential to misstep, but only through awareness of these weaknesses will we ever find our intersection with God. God does not expect our spiritual perfection in this life, in fact quite the opposite is true.
JC Calkins with COMMON SENSE 4 UNCOMMON PEOPLE (please share)
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To think, I was confused a minute ago!