How Strong Are You?

The title of this post is also the theme for an event this Saturday where I have been asked to speak to a group of men from this topic. The individual that asked me to speak is a relative stranger, so I really don't know what he expects me to say, but as soon as he mentioned the theme I was drawn to the scripture that contains the words, "my strength is made perfect in weakness".

In the last week I encountered a volatile situation. To be more specific, a volatile church situation. To be even more specific, a volatile church situation involving grown Christian men. From my perspective they are both right and the both will win and they both will have their way. NOT! From what I see their strength has the ability to doom an entire congregation. This situation calls for a weak man?

This Saturday I hope I can help these men see that the most dangerous man on earth is a strong man. A man that is strong in his awareness of his strength and in the power of his might, as opposed to the suggestion of Ephesians 6:10 saying "be strong in the Lord, and in the power of HIS might."

This Saturday if any man sticks his chest out and reminds me that wives are supposed to submit themselves to their husbands, I will hold my bird chest in and tell them that in the same chapter the Bible says, "Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church - a love marked by giving, not getting." (MSG) I think Otis Redding would say, Try a Little Tenderness."

This Saturday I hope I can impress upon them the fact that a man with all the answers all the time has become a God unto himself. They need to know that it's OK not to know the answer, as long as they know The Answerer.

I hope I can get them to understand that if they've never been hurt, not physically hurt, but hurt in their soul, then they really haven't lived except unto themselves. For even Jesus was "moved with compassion" when he saw the multitude. Even "Jesus wept" at the sorrow filled events that preceded the raising of Lazarus from the dead.

I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to say or how I'm going to say it, so I think I'll just delight in my oratory weakness and let God handle it.

Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer,
these limitations that cut me down to size -
abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks.
I just let Christ take over!
And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.
2 Corinthians 12:10 The Message