Flawed...
I will boast of the things that show my weakness.
-- 2 Corinthians 11:30
Thankfully the writers of the various narratives, histories, poems, and letters that make up the Bible never attempted to cover up the flaws of faith's heroes.
David's murderous lust. Peter's tempestuousness. Sarah's lack of faith. James' and John's ambition. Mary's past.
Real people with real strengths and real weaknesses; real faith and real doubts.
Much like us.
Paul is one of those super-saints with whom we feel we cannot relate. His shadow is cast over much of the New Testament and the formation of the early church. His pen produced much of what we consider sacred scripture.
Yet Paul is flawed. His story is not a simple one. It is not fairy-tale clean.
Paul was a man of incredible faith; a picture of passion and mission. But I think Paul was at times a lonely man. You can hear it in his voice when he gets personal in his writings. Groups of people, both outside the church and within, continually attacked Paul's credibility and motives. He was mocked, ridiculed and worse. He was also, on a few occasions, abandoned.
Paul was a man of strengths. His greatest? Intimacy with his weakness. Paul was flawed; and he hugged it. It is in this understanding of his own inability that he was enabled to completely rely on God's power within; God's power to transform.
The same is true for us. There is a swelling confidence that comes when we choose not to hide our weaknesses from God. Instead, when we reveal ourselves completely - when we hug our flaws - God's grace will do in and through us what only he can. And the results are beyond our wildest imaginations.
What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the hear of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him...
-- 1 Corinthians 2:9
God, I am flawed... But your grace overwhelms my weakness.
For now...
D
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