Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.”
NL Daily Devotion for Tuesday, August 11, 2020
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Paul’s ranting again. This time it’s a long laundry list of all the things he’s had to deal with in order to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. And it’s not a pretty list. It’s hard to imagine anyone enduring what he did, unless God was truly there in the midst of it, inspiring and sustaining. But his point in the list is not to say, “look at everything I’ve done for you and for the gospel.” It’s to say that none of those things matter. They’re not things to be proud of or use to make himself feel like he now deserves respect and unquestioning obedience. What’s important in his proclamation of Jesus isn’t his strength and endurance. It’s his weakness, his flawed imperfection. And the fact that he needs God in Christ Jesus to sustain him.
I’m a strong, independent woman, capable of a great deal. But I am absolutely powerless over people, places, and situations. I am not God. In my human weakness and imperfection, I reach out to God for help, I ask God to direct and sustain me. There and only there do I find true strength.
Do I sometimes think I’m strong enough without God?
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