22
May '19
The Crooked Steeple
22
May '19
My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness . . . (2 Corinthians 12:9)
Turns out that crooked church steeples make people nervous. When we visited some friends, they shared how, after a fierce windstorm, their church’s proud steeple was crooked, causing some alarm.
Of course, the church quickly repaired the flagging spire, but the humorous image got me thinking. Often church is seen as a place where everything is expected to look perfect; it’s not seen as a place where we can show up crooked. Right?
But in a fallen, broken world, all of us are “crooked,” each with our own collection of natural weaknesses. We might be tempted to keep our vulnerabilities under wraps, but Scripture encourages the opposite attitude. In 2 Corinthians 12, for example, Paul suggests that it’s in our weaknesses—for him, an unnamed struggle he calls a “thorn in the flesh” (v. 7)—that Christ is most likely to reveal His power. Jesus had told Paul, “my strength is made perfect in weakness” (v. 9). So Paul concluded, “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong” (v. 10).
We may not like our imperfections, but hiding them only denies Jesus’s power to work within those aspects of ourselves. When we invite Jesus into the crooked places in us, He gently mends and redeems in ways our effort could never accomplish.
What are some of the “crooked” places in your life? In what ways have you seen God work through your imperfections?
Dear God, enlighten what’s dark in me, strengthen what’s weak in me, mend what’s broken in me, bind what’s bruised in me, heal what’s sick in me and lastly revive whatever peace and love has died in me. Amen.
I love today’s devotion. We are all imperfect, loved by a perfect God. Invite Jesus into your imperfections for His mending.
Have a beautiful and uplifting day in The Lord!
Today’s Reading is Galatians 5:13