The Strength In Weakness

It is easy to complain, however it does no good.  Sometimes people think that when they complain, people give them sympathy.  Instead, most of the time the listener just thinks (or even says to others), "He/she complains a lot."  That is not to say that we don't have something to complain about.  Everybody has either sore feet, sorry kids, suffering parents, difficult spouses, difficult jobs, or something like that.  I mean if you sit around long enough and feel sorry for yourself, you can get depressed.  I have expressed it a little nicer many times from the pulpit by calling it "the pain on every pew."  God has blessed me with three pastorates and it took a few years at each spot but soon you find that everyone in your congregation has 'stuff' that they have to deal with.  It's life and it does not help to complain about it.  Paul made that clear to me this morning (www.lifejournal.cc) when he said in 2 Corinthians 12:10-  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. Now, off the top,  you need to know that Paul was focusing on the 'stuff' that he faced while serving the Lord.  He faced a bunch as he served the Lord because of the places he went and the things he did for the Lord.  Most of our complaints are not because we have been left for dead while serving the Lord. As a matter of fact, a lot of our problems, we actually created ourselves in some form or fashion.  Yet, God can use that too.  I don't understand everything in God's economy but I hang my hat on it.  Romans 8:28 tells us- And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.  In other words, God will use our messups, our weaknesses, and our difficulties to mold us to be what He would have us to be.   If that be the case, what are we complaining about?  God is at work in us.   Let's mark today by not whining, complaining, or making excuses.  Let's just go with the Lord and realize  when we are our weakest that sometimes God uses us at our greatest .