We were driving to town when my friend asked the question.
It popped out as she described the wrestling match she was in with life.
It was the type of question we call out in the midst of desperation. When we feel confused and lost, alone with no place to go. Enveloped in a smog that blinds, penetrates, threatens. In an attempt to make sense, pursue resolution, breathe anew.
“What’s wrong with me?”
It was a question I’d asked myself countless times so I felt her anguish. I also knew she wasn’t expecting an answer … at least not from me. But I had to share the one I’d been given.
I reached across to hold her arm, stopped the car to wait for a convenient school bus, and looked into her eyes to deliver it.
“There isn’t anything wrong with you. Let me assure you. There isn’t a single thing wrong with you!”
I drove on as I explained.
“God made you and me, with a combination of strengths and weaknesses, gifts and flaws. The gifts are really wonderful and we need to develop and use them for His purposes. It’s easy to get that. But the flaws are valuable too. Think about it.
“The cracks in us allow His light to shine out to others. I know you know that. But maybe more importantly the flaws help keep us balanced.
“When we’ve run too long in our own strength. When we get to the point where we can’t manage any longer. That helplessness causes us … sometimes forces us … to reach out to God. And He pulls us in and comforts us.
“So our flaws lead to a wake-up call that humbles us and restores us to right thinking. That He is God and we are not. That He is our loving and faithful Sovereign. That He promises to sustain and tend us. When we remember these things peace comes in and we can rest.”
The more I think about this exchange, the more I begin to see our flaws as gifts in disguise. The Father has woven weaknesses together with strengths to move us along in His will. There’s nothing wrong. It’s all part of His plan. A favorite verse comes to mind.
O Beloved, let’s not stop there. Let’s carry on with the Father’s great promise.
“‘Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and will bring you back from captivity.'” Jeremiah 29:12-14a
May He bless you through the balance of strengths and weaknesses He’s granted you.
Delighting in His presence,
Sandra