When I am weak, then I am strong.

Having had a myocardial infarction and two angioplasties with six stents and going through a cardiac rehab program, I am made all the more aware of my own weaknesses and frailties. Though I have been moving about as if I would live a thousand years, in actuality my life hangs on a little clot or lack thereof. If a clot were to develop within one of my coronary stents, I would probably have another MI and may even die. If God were to snuff out a smoldering wick that is me, then my days on this earth would instantly come to an end, but He does not or has not (Isaiah 42:3).

But I am comforted by Paul's confession that he will not boast about anything except his own weaknesses (II Corinthians 12:5), because when he is weak, then Christ's power may rest in him and he is made strong (II Corinthians 12:9-10). By tradition, it has been said that Paul was short in stature and suffered from chronic eye ailments -- what he refers to as a thorn in his flesh (II Corinthians 12:7). Though he wrote forcefully and powerfully, he was not always eloquent in speech, but "timid" (II Corinthians 10:1, 11:6). Yet through this weakling of a man, God chose to inspire nearly half of the New Testament and to proclaim the gospel to the Gentiles of the then-known world around the entire Mediterranean (Acts 9:15, 22:21, Galatians 1:16, 2:8-9).

God's power and greatness has always been manifest, without dependence on man's strengths. God chose a man named Abraham, who was "as good as dead", to produce a multitude of descendants as numerous as the stars of the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore (Hebrews 11:12). When Gideon gathered Israelites to go out and fight the Midianites, there were initially 32,000 men. God said, "You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her, announce now to the people, 'Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.' " (Judges 7:2-3). After all those with fear left, there were 10,000 left and were still too many. After a test at the water, only 300 men were left and considered few enough to fight the Midianites and Amalekites who were as "thick as locusts" and whose camels "could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore." (Judges 7:12). Of course, the result was a resounding victory for God and His chosen 300. When David went out to fight Goliath, David was "only a boy" whereas Goliath was "a fighting man from his youth" in Saul's assessment (I Samuel 17:33). Yet this mere boy, going out in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, struck down Goliath, a champion over 9 feet tall, and cut off his head.

As the heavens are higher than the earth, God's ways are higher than ours and His thoughts higher than ours (Isaiah 55:9). God's way of accounting is vastly different from and superior to ours. When Jesus saw a great crowd coming toward Him, He tested His disciples by asking how they would buy bread to feed the crowd, numbering 5000 men and probably as many women and children (John 6). The disciples' way of calculating led to an answer that they would need 8 months of wages or 200 denarii to buy enough bread for everyone to have a bite. Jesus' way was to see what was already there -- 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread -- and, after giving thanks, to distribute it to all those who were there. Everyone had as much as he or she wanted and there were still 12 basketfulls of left-overs. God wants to work through us, not because He needs us or what we have, but so that He can declare His majesty and omnipotence and He wants us to see it and believe in Him.

I am weak and barely amount to a smoldering wick and bruised reed. Yet I can rejoice and be confident in the knowledge that in my weakness, God's strength will be manifest and His power may rest in me. His grace is amazing and praiseworthy. Amen.