Weakness

I remember when I was younger I heard Jesse "The Body" Ventura say, "Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers. It tells people to go out and stick their noses in other people's business." Later on he went on to "clarify" his statement by saying he didn't mean "all" religious people are weak-minded... just those who feel they have the right to force their beliefs on others when, Jesse says, the constitution was founded with a right to freedom of religion. So, the weak-minded are those who have to have people agree with them to validate their own belief, which makes religion a crutch and the religious weak-minded... With that last part, I would agree with Mr. Ventura.

But when I heard this, actually I heard something to the affect of, "religion is for the weak," I became pretty offended. So I called up my friends who also believed in the same things I do and we talked about how we agreed with what each other believed. I felt better almost instantaneously. Just kidding. But it did affect me. I think it was the first time I can recall someone of high standings directly going against religion. I didn't really know what to believe or think... So I did what any other bored teenager did... I stuffed it back and didn't worry about it.

And now it has resurfaced...

I was, and still am in a lot of ways, a prideful person. When I heard Jesse Ventura call me weak, I reacted out of my pride and completely wrote him and his opinion off. I figured he was hardened to God and was probably very sad and lost. As I have grown more in my faith and stripped away my pride layer by layer, I am not offended by Jesse's quote anymore. I am actually saddened by it.

If I had to pick one attribute of the christian faith that was the most counter-cultural to this world, it would probably be weakness. Not that we are called to be weaklings, but we are called to be open about our weaknesses, so as to let people see the work of God in us.

The reason I am writing about this is because this morning I stumbled into something that I have been battling for a long time. Sometimes things are going well, like this morning, but my pride, apathy, sleepiness, whatever you want to claim as the culprit, wore me down and I fell back into the same slump I thought I was out of... and I think that was my problem. I thought I was out of the slump, I thought I had beaten it, but as it turns out I had not, and the only thing I could think was that I had been doing so well, how could I slip up!

Then it hit me! Nowhere in my struggle, when things are going well, do I acknowledge God as the one who is claiming victory in me. We go through a funny journey when up against an addiction or habit. We fight it so hard and lean on God so much when we are first battling out of the hole we have put ourselves in. But after some time we begin to believe it is on our own strength and clever planning that we have made it thus far. If you're like me, that is when we fall the hardest. I have found to be true in my life that pride is the silent instigator to all our pain, addictions and habits.

Pride is the one thing that keeps us from being humble. Pride drives us out of reason towards sheer selfishness and bitterness. Pride is the one things that keeps me from letting go of control and realizing that I am weak without my God (because I continue to screw it up when I don't acknowledge Him). Just as Harrison Ford said in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, "The penitent man kneels before God... Kneel!!!" How he knew to roll forward I will never know, but pride has kept me from kneeling before God and allowing Him to work in me.

Maybe it was the fact that I have fallen so many times with this certain addiction that the revelation hit me so hard... If pride is the biggest instigator to these things, what am I doing not only about my addiction, but my pride as well. It is through this morning, and God shedding light on the truth, that I am discovering that Jesse Ventura was right, so to speak. Religion is for the weak because we are all weak. There is not one person on this earth and in all of history who has lived a perfect life. We all have our short comings and failures. It took God to come in the flesh for us to see what a complete life on this earth could look like. But that was GOD IN THE FLESH. I am still waiting for Joe Schmoe to live perfectly... I have been so disappointed.

Paul was a great man. Even before he followed Jesus he was looked up to and respected because he was a jew to the "T," or should I say to the "J." But as he gave that life up to follow Jesus, he is now looked on with great esteem in the Christian world for the things God has done through him.

This mornings misgivings brought me to this passage in which Paul is addressing weakness in the Christian faith. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 has Paul giving in to the truth that through his weakness he is made strong. What a weird conundrum!

In our church, this ethos would be rejected. Greatness is shown in strength, merit, money and status. Jesus preached us to be last, placing Himself and others first. We are called to be servants to all. If we are aliens to this world, nothing would show that greater than living a life that's ethos, or lifestyle, was counter to what the world believes.

May our attitude be the same as John the Baptist. In John 3:30 he said "He [Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease." Our pride tells us that we can do it without God. It tells us that to be humble is dumb. It tells us that in order to have any kind of fulfillment on this earth we have to follow the ways of the world... I have lived by the ways of this world for far too long and it has only brought me pain and grief because I am constantly striving for more and to put up some kind of facade so people will accept me... Read that last sentence again. People all around the world are living this way and it sounds incredibly terrible when you read it aloud. Try to read in a happy voice... Sounds weird.

Only in our weakness, in the reality that we cannot do it without God, will we find true contentment. Thank you Jesse Ventura for lighting the way for those who truly want to follow Jesus in a real way. We are weak, but in our weakness God is made strong.