I realized on Sunday that someone told me something earlier in the week that I was supposed to pass along. I forgot to say anything about it and I felt really bad about it. So I sent an apology email to my elders letting them know what happened and that I was the guy who dropped the ball. One of them replied that because of my mistake there were things that happened that were really needed and that God had worked through my failure to bring about some needed things! Wow, God is amazing.
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” – 2 Cor 12:9-10
When was a time for you that, looking back, you could see God work through your failures? We are truly strong when we are strong in the Lord and not strong in and of ourselves.
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When it seems that ministers all too often get blamed because every solid hit does not result in a home run, it is nice to hear of an infield dribble being praised because it advanced the runners into scoring position. Nice!
When I look back to my teens through my thirties, I think, “What a blundering idiot”. I am in my sixties now, and recognizing and admitting what I was does not feel as dangerous as it once did. Of course, I did not see God working through my blunders at that time. It was not until I could say “I am God’s blundering idiot” that I could do that.
I once heard a wise gentleman say, “I could not be here before I was there”. I have been an avid reader of Thomas Merton over the last twenty five years. As most realize who know of Merton , he progressed greatly over the years, nearly to the point of being rejected by many Catholics. I keep Merton’ books in the order they were written, and I like to read then that way, simply because I recognize his journey, that ” he could not be here before he was there”. Seldom does God pick us up and immediately place us in a strange land. It is a journey, one filled with wrong turns, detours and, sometimes, horrific mistakes. But, if we keep in mind and heart that “From God, through God and to God are all things”, then we are pliable enough to let God use them.