What Is Your Weakness?

There is an old story about a water bearer who had two pots, one of which was cracked. I’m not going to recount the story here, but I will provide a link if you are not familiar with the story and would like to read it. The point of the story is that we each have our own strengths and weaknesses, and we shouldn’t feel superior or inferior to others because of a given strength or weakness. Your weakness is, of course, none of my business. The Bible does say to confess your faults one to another, but, quite frankly, I have enough weaknesses of my own to deal with. I’d rather not deal with yours.

Apostle Paul wrote once about the different members of the body. He asked the question, “If the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body?” His point was that different members of the body have different purposes. We need our eyes to see, ears to hear, hands to hold things, feet to walk, etc. By the same token, the Body of Christ has many members, and God has given each of us different abilities. We can easily see the importance of a good pastor, but how many of consider the importance of the one who comes in and cleans the church after service? Would you want to attend a church where the bathrooms never got cleaned? How long would it take before the entire building smelled? There are also people in the church to whom God has given a caring spirit. Many times you don’t pay much attention to these people, but when things are not going well for you, they have an encouraging word that helps get your heart right. They don’t have a position or a title in the organization, but the pastor wouldn’t be able to maintain the flock without them.

Casting Crowns did a song awhile back called, “Stained-Glass Masquerade” in which they posited that we have a bad (very bad) tendency to try to act perfect. It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that, because I am a Christian, I should not have any faults. If that were the case, however, then James 5:16 wouldn’t make any sense. Sometimes God covers our faults, but sometimes He shows our faults off to others so that they can see what marvelous works can be wrought by Him through even such miserable wretches as we are. Matthew 5:16 says to let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father, which is in Heaven. At first glance, that doesn’t seem very fair: If I’m doing the work, then why does He get the credit? Keep in mind, though, that if you are doing your work properly, then God will allow you to do things that you simply aren’t capable of doing on your own. Not necessarily what we would normally term ‘miracles,’ you understand, just things that you personally just aren’t good enough to do. Do you remember the story of Gideon? God kept telling Gideon that he had too many soldiers; if God allowed Israel to defeat an army that only outnumbered them by three-to-one or so, then the Israelites might start thinking that they could fight wars on their own. Even so, we have been given weaknesses by God so that we (and those around us) recognize it when God is working through us—God’s strength is made perfect in weakness.

Of course, Scripture also teaches us that we are not sufficient of ourselves even to think as of ourselves. Many of us have higher beings working through us without us even being aware of it. Unfortunately, many of those times, it isn’t God or His angels that are propelling us. It requires a great deal of time spent praying and seeking God to be sure which Spirit one is being led by.

Also remember that Scripture teaches us that we have all fallen short. If you start thinking that you can’t make a mistake, then you need to remember that you are still just a cracked pot. If you start thinking that you are just the worst person in the world, then you need to remember that the rest of us are cracked pots, too. The only reason that we have value is because God has granted us value. You are somebody because God loves you, not because of anything you can do.