weak = strength
July 8, 2018
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
I’m sure we can all agree that life is full of ups and downs, but for most of us, the telling of our story rarely includes the downs and when it does include the downs, they are talked about in a way that kind of glosses over the truth. Not that we are lying, because we aren’t, we are just telling a version that is more palatable, for us and hopefully for those listening. So, I wonder, what might our life look like if we weren’t so scared of our weaknesses? What might we gain if we stopped running from those valleys in our lives? What might happen to us if we were to fully embrace the failures in our life?
The thing is, failures and weaknesses are so difficult to talk about. That must be why most people will do everything they can to avoid them. That must be why most people make sure they never discuss them. That must be why we have “family secrets.”
The truth is weaknesses and failures are not something we are ever really encouraged to share. Instead, it seems, we are taught to be strong and successful. We are encouraged to guard our vulnerabilities and if we are ever unlucky enough to experience failures, or too weak to obtain success, hide that part of ourselves from everyone else.
I’m sure we’ve all heard people say things like “fake it till you make it.” Right? Maybe I’m the only one here, but I find that saying nauseating. Surely, we can all agree that those who are “faking it” are never really living an authentic life. And while on the outside it may appear like they’re “making it”, one might wonder “at what cost.”
Now you’ve heard me speak more than once about the unbelievable power of AA. I recall telling you that Amy & I witnessed this power first-hand as we were lucky enough to attend open meetings in support of loved ones. This power, which I call Love, requires many things of those attending the meeting if that meeting is going to be all that it can. In this book What’s So Amazing About Grace, Philip Yancey writes that the Love that permeates through an AA meeting is dependent upon radical honesty and radical dependence.
Those present must be radically honest with themselves and with others and they must all be radically dependent upon a Higher Power and each other. This idea of radical honesty is so difficult for people raised in a culture overrun by people trying to “fake it till they make it.” Yet, the light of Love would not shine through if those present were unwilling to share authentically. They must share their weaknesses. They must share their failures. They must share their warts. Anything less would serve to deprive, not only themselves of their authenticity, but it would deprive the entire group of that power of Love.
I’ve often wondered if the atmosphere Amy & I experienced inside that Open AA meeting could be recreated in the outside world. A world where outward image is made to feel so important. A world where weakness is ridiculed. A world where failure is used to make someone feel inferior and worthless.
Well earlier this week I came across “Failure-Lab” something I suspect most of us here have never heard about. Well back in 2012 two men from Grand Rapids, Michigan set out to create space for people to tell their stories, but tell them in a much different way than the norm. This new way of telling the story is best summed up by one word – failure. You see, the people who stand on stage to share part of their life with the assembled audience have agreed to tell the unglamorous, yet truthful part known as failure. It seems that all who have chosen to share at Failure Lab, were very reluctant initially. They wondered if their failures would become their identity. Realistic question I believe. Luckily, though, the reluctance gave way and allowed transformation to take place. This transformation is at the heart of Failure-Lab’s mission as Failure-Lab does not exists to glorify failure, its exists to crush the stigma surrounding it. In this way, Failure-Lab has set out to let each storyteller know that no matter what anyone says, they are more than their failure. In the words of Bryan Stevenson, “they are more than the worse thing they have done.”
**********************************
I believe the Apostle Paul knew something about this idea, especially considering that he was always having to defend himself and his authority with his Corinthian audience. To put today’s passage into better context we must start in chapter 11 where it becomes clearer that other apostles, whom Paul calls super-apostles, have been doing their best to make the Corinthians see Paul and his teachings as inferior. Apparently, these super-apostles have been going about boasting about their own experiences… boasting about how great their accomplishments are in comparison to Paul’s. And apparently their boasting is at Paul’s expense as they paint Paul as the fool. They paint Paul as weak. They paint Paul as a false teacher to whom no one should listen.
This is why in today’s passage Paul is writing about boasting. You see, others who came after Paul, and who wanted to be known as authoritative, were boasting about themselves and their experiences, but they were also seeking to lessen Paul’s authority. “Like Paul, we sometimes feel we must respond to such claims, particularly when they are made by persons we believe are preaching a dangerously distorted version of the gospel.”[1] The question though is how should we respond because there are no external standards by which any person’s claims to personal revelation can be evaluated.
“Paul, who years earlier had been blessed with a profound vision of the heavenly realm, was clearly tempted to go toe to toe with the super-apostles by offering vivid descriptions of his own (vv. 2–4). But he knew that a ‘my vision was better than your vision!’ shouting match would only help bolster his opponents’ stories.”[2] That is the problem with punching back at your accusers in the same way they punch you. Its similar to saying I know you are but what am I which may be a funny thing to say, but never actually helps strengthen your cause.
“What is at issue here, and what seems to be at issue throughout the letter, is for Paul somehow to show the power and authority of his and his coworkers’ ministry while at the same time demonstrating that the power and authority are qualitatively different from and superior to those of the rival missionaries. All of his argumentation about this important issue has been indirectly trying to establish, to one extent or another, that the seeming weakness of Paul and his coworkers is actually what gives them power, since it participates in the power of Christ’s ministry through weakness.”[3]
*******************************
Puffing yourself up to others so that they like you or, so they will approve of you is an awful way to live your life. Even more than that, though, telling your story in a way that always makes you look better than others, or calls into question the authenticity of others is just sad. But what is tragic is when you use someone’s weakness, or someone’s failure to turn people against them and toward you. Yet stuff like this still happens today as some believe the only way to build themselves up is to tear other people down. It is a terribly destructive way of living, but for reasons I can’t explain we keep doing it.
And this plays right into the worst parts of social media, and it makes me worry about my kids’ generation. I worry about the lessons they are learning about how to treat themselves and how to treat others. I worry that all around them everyday they are being told that unless they always look strong and unless they always look successful to others then they are not enough. I worry about it because it can be deadly.
For today, at least, Paul’s lesson is a powerful reminder that to embrace weakness is to embrace strength. To boast about your weakness is to envelope yourself in God’s Grace. That is why this teaching is so important.
That is also why I believe things like Failure-Lab are so important. They encourage us to find a new and better kind of strength. It’s why people come off stage at a Failure-Lab event and embrace the person who encouraged them to share. It’s why they describe their experience of sharing their failure as liberating.
That’s why those open AA meetings Amy & I’ve been too feel so important to me. You see in those spaces people discover this new kind of strength comes only when sharing your weakness. It’s a strength that we all desperately need, but the only way we can get it is by turning toward our weaknesses instead of running from them. Only when we stop running will we too come to know what Paul came to know – God’s Grace is sufficient for you.
Amen!
[1] McFadden, John T., Feasting on the Word Commentary, 2 Cor. 12:2-10, Pastoral Perspective
[2] Id.
[3] Ahearne-Kroll, Stephen P., Feasting on the Word Commentary, 2 Cor. 12:2-10, Exegetical Perspective
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
I’m sure we can all agree that life is full of ups and downs, but for most of us, the telling of our story rarely includes the downs and when it does include the downs, they are talked about in a way that kind of glosses over the truth. Not that we are lying, because we aren’t, we are just telling a version that is more palatable, for us and hopefully for those listening. So, I wonder, what might our life look like if we weren’t so scared of our weaknesses? What might we gain if we stopped running from those valleys in our lives? What might happen to us if we were to fully embrace the failures in our life?
The thing is, failures and weaknesses are so difficult to talk about. That must be why most people will do everything they can to avoid them. That must be why most people make sure they never discuss them. That must be why we have “family secrets.”
The truth is weaknesses and failures are not something we are ever really encouraged to share. Instead, it seems, we are taught to be strong and successful. We are encouraged to guard our vulnerabilities and if we are ever unlucky enough to experience failures, or too weak to obtain success, hide that part of ourselves from everyone else.
I’m sure we’ve all heard people say things like “fake it till you make it.” Right? Maybe I’m the only one here, but I find that saying nauseating. Surely, we can all agree that those who are “faking it” are never really living an authentic life. And while on the outside it may appear like they’re “making it”, one might wonder “at what cost.”
Now you’ve heard me speak more than once about the unbelievable power of AA. I recall telling you that Amy & I witnessed this power first-hand as we were lucky enough to attend open meetings in support of loved ones. This power, which I call Love, requires many things of those attending the meeting if that meeting is going to be all that it can. In this book What’s So Amazing About Grace, Philip Yancey writes that the Love that permeates through an AA meeting is dependent upon radical honesty and radical dependence.
Those present must be radically honest with themselves and with others and they must all be radically dependent upon a Higher Power and each other. This idea of radical honesty is so difficult for people raised in a culture overrun by people trying to “fake it till they make it.” Yet, the light of Love would not shine through if those present were unwilling to share authentically. They must share their weaknesses. They must share their failures. They must share their warts. Anything less would serve to deprive, not only themselves of their authenticity, but it would deprive the entire group of that power of Love.
I’ve often wondered if the atmosphere Amy & I experienced inside that Open AA meeting could be recreated in the outside world. A world where outward image is made to feel so important. A world where weakness is ridiculed. A world where failure is used to make someone feel inferior and worthless.
Well earlier this week I came across “Failure-Lab” something I suspect most of us here have never heard about. Well back in 2012 two men from Grand Rapids, Michigan set out to create space for people to tell their stories, but tell them in a much different way than the norm. This new way of telling the story is best summed up by one word – failure. You see, the people who stand on stage to share part of their life with the assembled audience have agreed to tell the unglamorous, yet truthful part known as failure. It seems that all who have chosen to share at Failure Lab, were very reluctant initially. They wondered if their failures would become their identity. Realistic question I believe. Luckily, though, the reluctance gave way and allowed transformation to take place. This transformation is at the heart of Failure-Lab’s mission as Failure-Lab does not exists to glorify failure, its exists to crush the stigma surrounding it. In this way, Failure-Lab has set out to let each storyteller know that no matter what anyone says, they are more than their failure. In the words of Bryan Stevenson, “they are more than the worse thing they have done.”
**********************************
I believe the Apostle Paul knew something about this idea, especially considering that he was always having to defend himself and his authority with his Corinthian audience. To put today’s passage into better context we must start in chapter 11 where it becomes clearer that other apostles, whom Paul calls super-apostles, have been doing their best to make the Corinthians see Paul and his teachings as inferior. Apparently, these super-apostles have been going about boasting about their own experiences… boasting about how great their accomplishments are in comparison to Paul’s. And apparently their boasting is at Paul’s expense as they paint Paul as the fool. They paint Paul as weak. They paint Paul as a false teacher to whom no one should listen.
This is why in today’s passage Paul is writing about boasting. You see, others who came after Paul, and who wanted to be known as authoritative, were boasting about themselves and their experiences, but they were also seeking to lessen Paul’s authority. “Like Paul, we sometimes feel we must respond to such claims, particularly when they are made by persons we believe are preaching a dangerously distorted version of the gospel.”[1] The question though is how should we respond because there are no external standards by which any person’s claims to personal revelation can be evaluated.
“Paul, who years earlier had been blessed with a profound vision of the heavenly realm, was clearly tempted to go toe to toe with the super-apostles by offering vivid descriptions of his own (vv. 2–4). But he knew that a ‘my vision was better than your vision!’ shouting match would only help bolster his opponents’ stories.”[2] That is the problem with punching back at your accusers in the same way they punch you. Its similar to saying I know you are but what am I which may be a funny thing to say, but never actually helps strengthen your cause.
“What is at issue here, and what seems to be at issue throughout the letter, is for Paul somehow to show the power and authority of his and his coworkers’ ministry while at the same time demonstrating that the power and authority are qualitatively different from and superior to those of the rival missionaries. All of his argumentation about this important issue has been indirectly trying to establish, to one extent or another, that the seeming weakness of Paul and his coworkers is actually what gives them power, since it participates in the power of Christ’s ministry through weakness.”[3]
*******************************
Puffing yourself up to others so that they like you or, so they will approve of you is an awful way to live your life. Even more than that, though, telling your story in a way that always makes you look better than others, or calls into question the authenticity of others is just sad. But what is tragic is when you use someone’s weakness, or someone’s failure to turn people against them and toward you. Yet stuff like this still happens today as some believe the only way to build themselves up is to tear other people down. It is a terribly destructive way of living, but for reasons I can’t explain we keep doing it.
And this plays right into the worst parts of social media, and it makes me worry about my kids’ generation. I worry about the lessons they are learning about how to treat themselves and how to treat others. I worry that all around them everyday they are being told that unless they always look strong and unless they always look successful to others then they are not enough. I worry about it because it can be deadly.
For today, at least, Paul’s lesson is a powerful reminder that to embrace weakness is to embrace strength. To boast about your weakness is to envelope yourself in God’s Grace. That is why this teaching is so important.
That is also why I believe things like Failure-Lab are so important. They encourage us to find a new and better kind of strength. It’s why people come off stage at a Failure-Lab event and embrace the person who encouraged them to share. It’s why they describe their experience of sharing their failure as liberating.
That’s why those open AA meetings Amy & I’ve been too feel so important to me. You see in those spaces people discover this new kind of strength comes only when sharing your weakness. It’s a strength that we all desperately need, but the only way we can get it is by turning toward our weaknesses instead of running from them. Only when we stop running will we too come to know what Paul came to know – God’s Grace is sufficient for you.
Amen!
[1] McFadden, John T., Feasting on the Word Commentary, 2 Cor. 12:2-10, Pastoral Perspective
[2] Id.
[3] Ahearne-Kroll, Stephen P., Feasting on the Word Commentary, 2 Cor. 12:2-10, Exegetical Perspective
