in my weakness, your growth

None of us wants to be the cause of another person's sanctification - at least, not unintentionally - and yet, so often, that is what we are.1

Is this one of the reasons that God allows us to become weak, dependent and forgetful as we grow older? Is it so we can place a necessary burden on those who were once dependent on us: a burden of forbearance and loving care?

Is this one of the reasons we may have to bear chronic illness or long-term disability? Why we may fight depression or suffer from mental disorders? Why we experience unemployment or material need? We may not want to receive others' charity and compassion, but in giving these, they grow into who they should be.

Is this one of the reasons God gives us personalities both winsome and challenging, attractive and off-putting, charming and awkward? Which of us would choose to have a 'difficult' temperament? But it's our unappealing qualities - uncomfortable thought! - that help others learn to love someone who's hard to love.

Is this one of the reasons we're not yet made perfect; one of the reasons that transformation happens so slowly? As we live with imperfect people, we practise forgiveness and forbearance, giving to them what God has far more generously given to us.

Speculation, I know, and raising all kinds of questions about God's sovereignty and our responsibility (yes, I am responsible to grow in godliness, not to persist in my ungodliness because it might help you grow!). In adversity, faith fixes its eyes on Christ and chooses hope, courage and love, not self-centred neediness (Hebrews 12:1-3). But it doesn't do this by a proud denial of need.

My instinct is to conceal my sin, make excuses for my faults, play to my strengths, and deny my dependence. What if, instead, I admitted my weakness, and gratefully accepted your generosity and grace? What if I served, even when the service wasn't perfect? What if, during times of helplessness and need, I practised contentment and received your help with gladness?

We are not strong; we are weak. We are not sinless; we are sinners. In our attitudes towards those who love and bear with us, we can choose to grow in humility, self-forgetfulness and joy. As we do this, we practise something far more significant: an attitude toward God that helps us to humbly receive his grace.


1. This odd little thought popped into my head while I was vacuuming. I suspect it has its roots in some novels I've been reading by the Anglo-Catholic author Elizabeth Goudge. While there's lots about her theology that I don't agree with, I am often encouraged by her moral insights.

This post first appeared in The Briefing yesterday.

image is by SanShoot from flickr

what I'm reading: Thanks for nothing

As we've continued to look at women of the Bible in our women's Bible study, I've been struck by how Hannah in 1 Samuel 1-2 brought nothing to God but her need, and how the Shunammite woman in 2 Kings 4 was taught by God through suffering what it means to be come to him with empty hands. Here's a post about another woman from 2 Kings 4 who came to God with nothing.

Once there was a woman with nothing. No husband, no income, no food, no prospects. Nothing. She was the mother of two boys, but her late husband’s creditor was already on his way to claim them as slaves. I think in some small way, I can relate to that.

She came to the man of God with nothing. And he said to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?” “Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a little oil.” II Kings. 4:2

One terrified, desperate woman was about to learn something about nothing. She must have listened in amazement to the prophet’s instructions.

“Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons.” II Kings 4:3-4

It was as if the prophet were saying, “Listen, we don’t have enough emptiness here. I want you to collect all the emptiness in the neighborhood, as much as you can beg, borrow or finagle. Then go inside.” So the widow gathered up all the nothing she had and all the nothing she could borrow and went into her empty house with sons who were no longer her own...

Click here to read the rest at Mentoring Moments for Christian Women

image is from mentoring moments