End of Quarter Devotional

Pretty soon after our theme verse for the year (1st Corinthians 2:1-5) was announced, I knew exactly what I would want to talk about when I had the chance to lead a spiritual talk. This Monday I was the designated leader for our staff devotional in the morning, so I let loose. Below is roughly the transcript of what I said.

Our theme verse reads:

And I, when I came to you, brothers and sisters, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with eloquence or earthly wisdom.  For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.  And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,  and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom and persuasion, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

I love this passage and I'm so glad it's our theme for the year. But honestly, I thoroughly enjoy the academics surrounding eloquence, wisdom and persuasion. It is literally my job to study and teach about those things. But those aren't the words that I'm drawn to in this passage.

Instead, I find myself hanging onto verse 3: "And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling."  In the midst of a passage about power and the Gospel, I somehow find this verse very comforting, probably because I have experienced all those things. Being in a place of weakness, fear and trembling is familiar, though uncomfortable territory for me, and maybe it is for you, too.

Weakness? Guys, basically the entire staff has been sick this month. And if you haven't been sick in body, maybe you've felt weak when you didn't have the language, the energy, the patience or the time.

Fear? Maybe you've gone somewhere new and you were afraid of what you would find (or not find) there. Or, maybe you stayed somewhere only to watch it change and become unfamiliar, so that one day you find yourself completely out of your element in a place you thought was safe. Instead of security, your future remains unknown.

Trembling is interesting to me because it's involuntary. We can't help it. Something we do betrays how we're feeling and we lack the strength and confidence we so desperately wish we had. But instead we have an uncontrollable reaction to a world that already is out of our control.

But Paul doesn't leave us there. He instead reassures us that being in fear, weakness and trembling does not mean we are unfruitful. Experiencing those things does not mean we are ineffective.

It is okay to be there.

Paul was experiencing those things because he was obedient to the Great Commission and God used him there. Paul says that he resolved to know nothing but the Gospel, which is saying something if you know anything about his education and intelligence. But in Phil 3:8, he talks about how he considers those things loss in comparison to the surpassing glory of knowing Christ.

So this isn't really about Paul's weakness - it's about God's strength and the power of the Holy Spirit that spread the Gospel and prospered Paul's ministry. In fact, Paul's confession of weakness brings further glory to God, following the example of John the Baptist in John 3:30 when he explains that "I must become less, [Jesus] must become more."

So now Spiritual Emphasis Week is behind us. But we still have families and students around us who need to hear and see Christ crucified in us, despite (or because of?) our fear, our weakness and our trembling. But I encourage you to let those things display God's power with the guidance of the Spirit.

In closing, I want to add something to that list of fear, weakness and trembling. In Daring Greatly by Brené Brown, she writes in bolded letters: "Hope is a function of struggle."  Now if fear, weakness and trembling are signs of struggle, then let hope accompany them. Let an active hope be with you because of who God is and how His power is demonstrated in our struggle.

Literally shivering (trembling?) in the cold
of a La Paz winter

Jumping for joy in the next day because that winter
resulted in beautiful scenery