Strengths and Weaknesses
I firmly believe in working within your Holy Spirit giftings, but not ignoring your weaknesses. Your weaknesses will be the limit of your ceiling, or your Achilles Heel, so to speak. As strong as you are in one area, if you are so weak in another area, it will limit your overall effectiveness.
For example, if you are a wonderfully gifted musician but a real jerk, it limits the blessing of your music. If you’re a wonderfully gifted teacher but lousy at relating to people, no matter how good your lesson is, it won’t sink in.
My wife helps me in my many weak areas, and I want to improve on them every year. If I’m at a 4 on a scale of 1–10, I hope to improve my weaknesses to a 5 or 6. Realistically, though, I think author John Maxwell is right when he says that even if we placed all our efforts on improving our weaknesses, we’ll only ever be mediocre at best. And it will be exhausting, because you will be ignoring your strengths.
Jamie’s dad became the pastor of a little country church where the previous pastor had been dismissed for moral failures. But, that pastor was such a charismatic people-person that even though he had sinned, all the people loved him and loved his style of pastoring. When my father-in-law showed up, he taught the Word and tried to purge the web of sin that had infiltrated the church, and it was a difficult 6 years. He was good with people, but compared to the previous guy, my father-in-law was a 5 or 6 and the previous guy was a 10!
Comparisons are hard. We are all gifted in some areas and un-gifted in others! People tend to notice the weaknesses of others through the lens of their own strengths. “She needs to be more ________.” Or, “He should do better at __________.” Or, “No one ever ___________.”
You notice the things in the blank because that’s probably what you are good at.
We have a lot of good things going on around here. I am so thankful for what God is doing. I love it. Absolutely love it.
But then, there’s always problems too. My weaknesses are glaring, and if God hung everything on the pastor, we’d be in a heap of trouble.
But the Scriptures tell us that we ALL are part of this body. It edifies itself in love. The many parts of the body all work together to strengthen the whole.
So if you’re noticing a weakness, that might be the Holy Spirit telling you to do something about it, because you are probably really good at that thing.
I’m trying to work on my weaknesses and in my strengths. Working in your giftings doesn’t feel like work! It’s energizing to be used in the areas where God has gifted you! You wake up in the morning ready to get after it! I love teaching, writing, preaching, and administrative stuff, and I’ve been overwhelmed with the many high-level, big-picture conversations with many, many people over the past month. Those things energize me and don’t feel like work, but they are all part of the calling on my life!
What are you called to do?
- Serve? Immanuel is a servant, and has spent many, many full days at the church over this past year just serving—and he seems to love it!
- I know teachers who can’t wait to convey what God has laid on their heart.
- I know givers who are thrilled at giving.
- I know people who love turning chaotic shelves into order.
- I know people who are energized by just be a merciful friend to someone; people energized by long, deep conversations.
Sometimes the very thing that would drain me causes you to light up. Conversely, maybe you would rather die than speak in front of a crowd! It takes all of us in a church to grow a healthy body. Find your place and jump all in. –Pastor Ryan