“In the fell clutch of circumstance, I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance, My head is bloody but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears; Looms but the Horror of the shade. And yet the menace of the years, Finds and shall find me unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” – William Ernest Henley
As beautifully written; as wonderfully expressive as this most famous of quotes by Henley is, it is, in my opinion, the most dressed
And further, that it was God who…
“…determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.”
In this Scripture, we make a startling discovery: That we live where we do; in the sliver of history that we do; not by our own determination and choice but because of God’s choice and determination. In other words, you live where you do not because you made a choice but because God did.
“What do you mean I didn’t make a choice”, you may ask? “How can you say that? Are you saying we don’t have free will?” No, but understand:
- We are the product of millions of Providential occurrences that happened in the past without our involvement that have affected why we are here right now.
- Our place in history is not been determined by a series of random events that have simply collided against one another by pure coincidence. But they were orchestrated in the past by the P
rovidence of God without our help, involvement, or performance.
So we must reason, we are not self-made people. We are not the “masters of our fate” nor the “captain of our soul”. We owe the blessings of our existence; who we are and where we live, to the One who has orchestrated both time and circumstance to our advantage.
We live not by willful self-determination but by the grace of God.
Therefore, God is not who we may have thought him to be. He’s not some Mai-Tai sipping god, who sits on the lido deck of eternity with distracted interest as the world crumbles around us. He’s a God so magnificent in power; so creative in intricate design; that he orchestrates even the most random, coincidental, and infinitesimal of circumstances to bring about the blessings of life for all.
So, unlike Henley, prosperity then is not an occasion for pride, nor is uncertainty; problems, trials, and pain an occasion for panic. For God sends both sunshine and rain into the lives of people, and from both, you learn how spurious and moronic are the claims of anyone who would suggest that they can determine their own destiny. For if Providence rather than chance exist, then we live by permission not by good management.
And if anything should be a constant reminder of just how needy and dependent, we as finite beings are, it is in the area of human weakness.
Now, very few of us highlight our weaknesses to the passing world. In fact, we are quite adept at keeping them
In fact, I remember being told very distinctly, as a young pastor fresh out of seminary, that to be a good leader, I needed to pretend that I knew what I was doing in every situation, even when I didn’t. To the man who uttered this to me, weakness in a leader would only serve to be a detriment to their ministry and cause people to question their leadership.
Looking back, I’d have to say that was one of the worst pieces advice I’d ever received as a pastor.
It might work well in the foxholes on the battle front to believe that one’s commander is infallible but to believe that in Christian ministry is detrimental and destructive to both the Christian leader and to those who follow him.
In comparison, throughout the narrative of Scripture itself, you discover that the Bible is not shy in highlighting the faults of those whom one might consider a hero of the faith. Abraham struggled with lying; David with lust; Peter always stuck his
But it’s in regard to our human weakness that the Bible speaks even more poignantly when Paul relays to us a curious, yet godly attitude we ought to imitate in 2 Corinthians 12:10. He writes,
“…for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then am I strong.”
How strange; how other-worldly is that attitude. I know of no one who would willingly take such a view; who would view their weakness in such a manner. Normally, people don’t shine a light on their failure; they pack it away; they hide it from the prying eyes of the world around them.
I’ve seen Christians act this way. They live their lives deathly afraid that someone might discover just how weak and helpless and screwed up they really are. Why are they afraid? Pride is one reason. But fear is another. They figure, “if somebody knows the real me…they might not love or respect me; they might reject me.” And so they come to church; they live their life, like an actor playing a part on a stage. They never want anyone to see the real struggling person behind the façade they’ve created. They work so hard to present this image of a “together Christian” to the world; a person who’s got it all together; somebody who’s crushing it spiritually when all along they know the truth about themselves. And they end up living a life of quiet desperation, instead of a joyful life in Christ. They’re deathly afraid that someone might discover they’ve got weaknesses; and struggles; and issues; and fears; and problems. Is that the address where you live? Are you running scared of someone discoveri who you really are?
The worldly and sophisticated in this current corrupt culture would think you had taken leave of your senses if you responded in such a way.
But I see the profundity of it; the reality and the wisdom of its absurdity. Strength comes in the midst of
I discovered this for myself when I journeyed to Nepal last February for a mission trip. I had been there once before in 2016 and al
O boy was I ever wrong!
Firstly, jet lag affected my body even worse the second time then it had the previous year. I had never in my life experienced what four days without sleep could do to a person’s mental and emotional stability. But sleeplessness brought me to utter exhaustion, to the point where I physically collapsed in a heap of emotional goo.
Yet, in addition to this, I also became sick with dysentery due to the arsenic-laced water that the locals cooked our food in. All of this, compounded by the natural rigors of a 3rd world country, brought me to the point of utter helplessness I wasn’t able to overcome on my own.
Yet in the midst of my weakness, God was teaching me some important lessons of faith:
God is in the habit of using weak and unworthy things
The Lord delights in empowering the weak in order to confound the strong. A wise man once said,
“One of the great lies I’m tempted to believe is that I’m self-sufficient. For everything. For life, for marriage, for parenting, for working – the whole ball of wax. But hardship, trials and human frailty are the matches that torch my self-made façade and fallacy.”
That’s the lie people tell themselves, they believe that they are enough. Our successes tempt us to believe: I’m enough…ah, but our weaknesses teach us something different…we learn how needy we really are.
Sometime ago, when my youngest son was playing in a double’s tennis match at school, I watched as his best friend was about to hit a returned ball in his direction. The ball was at such an arc that his friend thought this was his chance to really crush it in a devastating return that would have him admired by his compatriots. Unfortunately, his passion for the shot got in the way of his contact with the ball; and instead of hitting this ace-returned ball, he missed it completely which sent me into uproarious and uncontrolled laughter. He was so intent on crushing it and yet, so far from being able to do it, that even today…as I write this…it makes me laugh.
But that’s the way many people live their lives, thinking they’re going to “crush it” in life, and yet, through human weakness, they miss it completely. Sometimes even we act as though we believe that same lie; and yet God in his mercy sends hardship as mirror simply to show us the reflection of the truth about our own helplessness and neediness.
The principle we find in weakness is that the only sufficiency we have is in Christ alone! And sometimes, God sends hardship to burn away everything we’ve been holding on to so that we might hold on to only him.
But see here’s the blessing once we learn that we discover that…
When God is our sufficiency, we can face any hardship life throws at us without giving up.
Paul is saying in 2 Corinthians, “I can be transparent with my weaknesses and find that God is still at work.” “I can admit that I’ve been hard pressed on every side but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed.” For when God is your sufficiency, you find that you have strength through the power of God to face anything; any hardship; any setback; any pain; and still come out on the other end a joyful and fulfilled person.
““I’ve gone through all of these things”, says Paul, “but at the end of the day…I’m still here.” And I’m still here not because of my talents but because God is a powerful God. Because my hope is not in my ability to handle the problems of life; my hope is not found in everything going my way…my hope is in the Lord.
And at the end of the day, I’m still here because God in his might; in his power is still at work. Through the workings of divine Providence, God has it all under control. The real strength found in weakness is this…
Human weakness is no barrier to the purposes of God
Just because you’re weak doesn’t mean God can’t work! So, do what Paul did today…do
Have you yet found that to be true in your own life? Is that an address where you live? Or are you like Adam and Eve, searching for that perfect leafy green covering you can hide behind because you’re scared, and perhaps a little embarrassed, to show someone what you’re really like?