{"id":291,"date":"2016-07-16T10:51:30","date_gmt":"2016-07-16T17:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smallchelle.com\/?p=291"},"modified":"2016-07-16T10:53:08","modified_gmt":"2016-07-16T17:53:08","slug":"when-i-am-weak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smallchelle.com\/?p=291","title":{"rendered":"When I am Weak"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently watched an episode of the T.V. show House in which the main character, Dr. Greg House was released from a lengthy stay at a psychiatric hospital with a party called his re-birth day. He spends a large portion of the episode making life miserable for everyone to prove that he\u2019s \u201cbetter\u201d and ready to leave and get on with his life. He refuses to take his meds. He\u2019s mean and disruptive. Then he\u2019s sees what he perceives as the mistreatment of another patient, a young man who is delusional and believes he\u2019s a superhero.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pride Goes Before a Fall<\/span><\/h3>\n

House smuggles this patient off the grounds and takes him to a carnival where they go on a ride that simulates flying and play the \u201cstrongman\u201d game where you use a hammer to send up a puck that rings a bell. After what appeared to be a fun time the young man climbs up to a ledge in a parking garage, and still believing he can fly, jumps from the ledge and is badly injured.<\/p>\n

House realizes he was wrong. He couldn\u2019t fix the young man\u2019s delusion, and had in fact made it worse.\u00a0The next scene shows House taking his meds. He is confronted by his roommate, who was also refusing meds.<\/p>\n

Roommate says, \u201cYou let them get to you. They broke you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

House replies \u201cThey didn\u2019t break me, I am broken.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I loved this. I saw Peter echoed here. At first so proud and confident to Jesus\u2026 \u201cThough all deny you I will not deny you, I will go with you to death.\u201d Then he denies Christ 3 times. Once he is humbled and recognizes his weakness is Jesus able to ask him to \u201cfeed his lambs.\u201d Before his denial he was too strong and proud to serve anyone but himself. After his denial and repentance he had a full view of his own brokenness and his need for strength from a source outside himself.<\/p>\n

When I am Weak then I am Strong<\/span><\/h4>\n

Over the course of the rest of the episode House learns how to open up for real to his therapist, stop trying to fix everyone else and apologize to and move on with the delusional man. Toward the end he suffers an emotional hurt and instead of going back to his addiction he seeks out his therapist and admits his pain and fear. It is at this moment the therapist tells him he\u2019s finally ready to go back to \u201cnormal\u201d life.<\/p>\n

We can\u2019t live a real Christian life until we admit that we can\u2019t really live the Christian life! Paradoxical, I know. Paul explains this in Second Corinthians:<\/p>\n

So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations,<\/span>\u00a0a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, \u201cMy grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.\u201d Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:17<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At a prayer meeting earlier this week a friend reminded me of the sermon on the mount where Jesus says, \u201cBlessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.\u201d<\/span> We are poor in spirit when we recognize we have a spiritual need and see God as the only answer to that need.<\/p>\n

We have a choice to make every day. We can either stand in pride and do everything possible to gain and maintain our own kingdom, or we can surrender and trust the God who made us, who is trustworthy and true. We can seek His kingdom and know that He will give us everything we need in this life and the next. Even if it\u2019s what God gave Paul, \u201csufficient grace.\u201d And isn\u2019t His grace worth more than anything this world has to offer?<\/span>
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