Can we get honest about our weaknesses

One reason we don’t want to get honest with each other about our weaknesses is because we think that our mistakes and failures define us. There are two different ways to look at our weaknesses, mistakes and failures. The world tells us that our weaknesses, failures and mistakes make us “less than” and affect our worth as a human-being. The world will always measure a person’s worth and success based on their performance. If you excel we will celebrate you in this world, but if you fail you will be defined based on your performance as “a failure”. 


God’s view of our weaknesses, failures and mistakes is very different. God made us and he could have chosen to make us perfect, but instead he chose to make us with weaknesses. My own weaknesses and failures are not a sign that I am “less than”, they are a sign that I was created to exist in a relationship with God. The Bible teaches me that where I am weak, He is strong, but this requires me to let God in. God will never force himself into our lives, we must ask him for help. When I admit my need to God he will give me strength when I am weak, provide where I have a need and redeem what is broken in my life. 

We all have different strengths and weaknesses but each person is weak in some area. The person who tells you that she doesn’t have any weaknesses at all is only working hard at covering them up. Our deficiencies in life are not a sign that we are not “good enough”, it’s a space that God has created for himself in our lives. God is not expecting us to be strong and independent all the time. God wants me to need him, because he wants a relationship with me. If I was a perfect human there would be absolutely no need for God in my life, but God has made sure that I’m far from perfect. I can’t flourish apart from God, I need him, whether I like it or not. This life was meant to be like a dance between God and man, but man decided to leave God out. “I can do this myself” the human said, and here we are. Look how well we are doing by ourselves.

When I try to do life out of my own strength I will fail, mess up and end up exhausted. I wasn’t created to live this life apart from God so when I choose to not let God into my life it’s natural for me to end up worried, anxious, insecure and overwhelmed. I find freedom when I learn to surrender. The moments in your life when you will see God move in powerful ways is often the moments when you are the weakest. The moment I realize that trying harder is not going to work I will finally surrender. When I stop trying to be perfect and say: “God I’m ready to admit that I can’t do this without you, please help me, I need you” that’s when everything shifts. It’s in times like these that we get to see God move in our lives in ways that we could never have imagined. It starts with surrender. One of the greatest obstacles that keep us from knowing God intimately is our own pride. Pride says: “I can do this myself, I don’t need God.” God has left many signs that point to His existence in the universe, like his beautiful artwork; sunsets, mountains, sandy beaches and newborn babies. But another way that God shows himself is by showing up for us where we are weak, if we let him.

God loves every human-being on planet Earth but each human has been given free choice by God. We get around 100 years to decide if we will choose to love God back or not. We can choose to love God back or we can choose to reject him. From the beginning humans have been tempted to build their lives apart from God and do things their own way. The sad thing about this story is that apart from God humans can not flourish. God has created us to exist in relationship with him and apart from him our souls become sick and we end up breaking each other. Saint Augustine stated it well when he said: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” I can choose to struggle through this life alone, or I can learn to “dance with God”.

We need other people's help to stay strong

We all go through struggles in life, but we were never meant to go through them alone. Something incredible happens when we discover the strength that can be found in sharing your weaknesses with others. Pastor Jonathan Josephs teaches a great sermon about the importance of inviting other people into our struggles in life. We are all prideful by nature, we want to cover up all our mistakes and weaknesses and we want to appear like we have it all together, although the opposite is true. Jonathan talks about how the Israelites in The Bible were able to keep building the wall around the city in the midst of great setbacks and discouragement. The key to their success was that they would help each other whenever there was an attack on the city in the weak places. In the same way each one of us needs to let other people help us where we are weak to be able to make it in times of trouble and despair. Our weaknesses may look very different, but we all have them, and we need each other to stay strong.


As Christians we are all called to treat each other like brothers and sisters, when somebody among us is suffering we are called to reach out to that person and offer to help in any way that we can. As Christians we are also called to be humble, to let others help us and to choose to reveal our vulnerabilities to others in our community so that they will know where we need help. Other people can't offer to help us if we are keeping all our weaknesses a secret. It requires a humble heart to share one's vulnerabilities and to let others offer their help, and it requires an unconditional brotherly love to make oneself available and offer help to others in times of need. This is the kind of lifestyle each Christian is called to live out, it's what we call Christian community. 


Living in Christian community with others might mean that we decide to bring a meal over to someone who is sick or to a family who just had a baby a few days ago. It might mean offering to fill up the fridge for someone who is going through a tough time financially at the moment. It takes a generous heart to choose to live in this way and it takes a humble heart to be able to receive help when offered. One of my friends was on bed rest during her pregnancy and her Christian friend offered to come over and clean her house since she wasn't allowed to move. It required great humility from my friend to let another person serve her in this way.


A couple I know in church have two cars and live in a neighborhood where some neighbors can't afford even one car, anytime they see a need they offer their neighbors to borrow one of their cars. Sometimes it's small things God asks us to do for one another and sometimes it's something that requires great sacrifice from us. Every act of kindness matters to God and this is the way we are all called to live, serving each other in love. It's the way Jesus lived during the years he walked on this Earth. Jesus didn't use his time on Earth to make himself rich and live in luxury, instead he made himself poor so that through his sacrifice others could become rich. Wherever he went Jesus shared the good news about the Kingdom of God and healed those who were hurting. Jesus set an example for how we are all meant to live; to share the good news about God and to offer to serve others wherever we go. I love the gospel, this world can be really cold and sometimes over-complicates things, but Jesus shows us that life doesn't have to be that way. We simply need to talk about the love we have found in God with others and use our personal gifts to serve those who are suffering among us.