I love the Lord with all my heart
I serve the King with all I have
He is my God, my everything:
Yet here I am: down and poor.
Who wants weaknesses and needs?
Why would God leave me infirmed?
Isn’t my love and quest for Him enough?
Aren’t my services and sacrifices sufficient?
Our Father, who art in heaven
Take away poverty, give me only wealth
Take away infirmities, give me only health
Lead me not into suffering O God I pray, amen.
But no, He would not. Why, I wonder?
Because my life is not mine but His
My weaknesses are the bases for His strength:
The more I die, the more He lives in me.
So I glory in weaknesses and wants
And as I surrender them all to Him
He moves beyond my limitations
Accomplishing wonders unimagined.
If we all had our way, we’d choose never to be weak or want for anything. We’d reach for the best of everything and every experience. But we are humans who must content ourselves with the much we’re given per time while walking toward that which is expected. Sometimes, we are satisfied with our findings. Some others, we are disappointed, humiliated, and disheartened by what we discover about ourselves, the things we yearn for, and the ones that come our way.
Why didn’t God make us perfect from day one? Why doesn’t He give everything at once? Because He is sovereign – He makes the ultimate decisions. Come to think of it, if some of us were perfect and others weren’t, if some of us had it all while others didn’t, can you imagine what the world will be like? Definitely worse than it is today. With our obvious weaknesses, patience remains a taxing practice, how much more if life was the way we think it should be?
God is not the author of our weaknesses. Nevertheless, He allows them amidst our overwhelming spiritual encounters to keep us in touch with our humanity, which is essential for as long as we are still on earth. When you have it all and can do it all, then you need no more, you’ll strive no more, you’ll live no more. Then to the living, you will become a pain, trouble in their sincere path of quest and growth. With our obvious and mutual imperfections, we yet cry, “Life is unfair!” Can you imagine how the scales will be tilted if some were perfect and the rest of us imperfect?
Our imperfection is not a limitation when viewed from God’s perspective. That is what qualified us for the grace of God. Grace is God’s aid for our helplessness, to help us meet up in those places we would have forever remained in want. Grace is our buffer, not to make us comfortable in our inadequacies but to help us strive to rise above the constraints of our humanity. Our privations make us candidates for God’s supernatural provisions. The more we need, the more we depend on our Maker and Provider, and the more we can appreciate the patience and grace He pours upon us as we reach out to others like us, who demand from us, what we have enjoyed with and learned from God.
God did not allow our weaknesses in order to shame and ruin us. It was not in the original plan of our Father for His children. Instead, it was a product of man’s disobedience, for which God has provided grace enough to help us live through. God’s grace is sufficient for everyone who is willing to tap into it. Despite the seeming hitch to Abba’s original plan, God knew it all in the beginning. He was not taken by surprise, and His design for life remains perfect just as He remains in perfect control of all things. Our weaknesses have lost the crippling effects they would have held over our destinies – because of the grace of God. Now, they are but constant reminders of our humanity. They keep us humble, grateful and thankful of free gifts that can be easily despised and discarded. And they compel us to, “Go and do likewise” with our fellowmen, thus making the earth a livable place.
Imagine life without needs? There will be no room for hope, for faith, and no expectations. Likewise, there will be nothing to strive for, nothing to thrive on; no need for growth, nothing to learn, no education, no profession, no pressure of desire, and no joy of fulfillment. What a life that would be! It makes me acknowledge that truly, life is perfect the way God made it. When we learn to lean on Him in trust and look at it like He does, we discover that the pressures, the challenges, the weaknesses and all of such, are simply spices that add flavor to what would have been an otherwise boring life. May we rejoice in the Lord despite what we have and have not and may we appreciate the daily doses of mercies and love that make us strong and keep us going from one day to the other, amen.
Glory!