Right Might

And the LORD turned to him and said, Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you? -- Judges 6:14

We each have gifts, strengths and abilities as well as weaknesses.  None of us are perfect and complete alone, but neither are any of us completely helpless.  In order to accomplish anything, we must bring what we have to the task.  Instead of lamenting and regretting that we are not as talented, intelligent, strong, or courageous as someone else, we have to be willing to take on a challenge our way. 

If age has taught me anything and brought me any measure of wisdom, it is this:  there’s almost always more than one way to get something done.  I may not be able to do it the same way someone else does, but I may have a different strength or ability that can be brought to bear and accomplish the same ultimate goal. 

In fact, it is often the case with the Lord that He is able to make better use of our weaknesses than our strengths.   Gideon was clearly not a particularly brave and bold person.  This “might of yours” that God used to deliver Israel was, at least in part, Gideon’s lack of confidence in his own power and ability.  Facing an overwhelming task, Gideon knew that it was beyond anything he could do.  Gideon’s fleeces have been the fodder for many sermons about trusting and believing God.  Nevertheless, given the challenge he faced, Gideon was right in making certain that he really was hearing from the Lord. 

Our faults, flaws, and vulnerabilities can become our strength, as the Apostle Paul knew from very personal experience:

But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

Weakness and lack of ability force us to rely solely on the Spirit and His power.  We used to quote the last part of Zechariah 4:6 a lot:  Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts, because we understood the futility of using the arm of the flesh or natural power to do what God has called us to do.  I fear that the Church has gained too much worldly wealth and power, too much political and cultural influence to live by that divine admonition these days.  

Yet, like Gideon, we are called to do what is impossible to the flesh, no matter how strong or wise or talented or brilliant we may be.  We are called to live a holy life in spite of the world, the flesh and the devil.  It is not just not easy.  It can't be done.  Christ alone was able to do it, and in Christ alone, humbly acknowledging our inability, we are able. 

Happy Christian Cynics Day

Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God … -- 2 Corinthians 3:5

I was checking the news this morning just to see what was going on in the wide, wide world.  Looking at the uproar over a rodeo clown in an Obama mask in contrast to the betrayal of Americans in Benghazi or the trashing of the Fourth Amendment by the NSA, one can easily become cynical.  Good Christians, I have been told, should not be cynical.  I ain’t that good.  Hence, today, which, by a strange coincidence, happens to be the birthday of someone who stabbed me severely in the back and had to be forgiven, I hereby initiate the Semi-Eternal Somewhat Cheerful Order of Christian Cynics of Greater Foose.  Our coat of arms consists of eyes rolling over a burning Chevy Volt bearing the UAW label in a field of windmills with a decapitated bald eagle.  Our motto:  You can never expect too much from God or too little from men.  Since we are Christian cynics, we must humbly acknowledge that we fall solidly into the latter class, which separates us from the pagan cynic, and, of course, hipsters. 

Sometimes we really can’t get there from here, and we have to go someplace else and start over.  Starting from ourselves, if our path is not toward God, we find ourselves inevitably at a dead end.  The sense that we cannot do what God seems to require of us is a valid assessment of our human limitations and not a reason to either question God’s standards or to despair.  As we say in software, it functions as designed, that is, to draw us toward the Source, the One who is able to make us sufficient for whatever challenge we face. 

I am often surprised at the calmness and peacefulness exhibited by many in the midst of great turmoil and tragedy.  There are the stories of panic and mindless, animal-like stampedes when the herd instinct overwhelms and sweeps individuals into the maelstrom.  Those stories are the more remarkable for how often they do not happen.  People we might never expect to be open to God find themselves in the role of a Samaritan who is not so bad.  People that we think should be broken by the unbearable instead bear up, finding strength and resilience they never knew existed.  When our backs are to the wall, we find that it was a secret door all along which opens when we are pressed to release the grace of God into our situation.  

Further along in this same letter, the Apostle relates his personal struggle and how he prayed for deliverance from what he thought he could not endure:  But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.