November/December 1999
Common Ground
by Joseph Tkach
Of life's many paradoxes, perhaps the most surprising is the slogan: "When I am weak, then I am strong."
Have you heard about the world traveler who was shipwrecked, floated ashore on a piece of wood, and was just getting over the shock when he was bitten by a snake?
This ambassador of Christianity wrote often about his experiences, and some of his major ideas come in the form of paradoxes. One of them was: "When I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12:10).
That man had faced unjust imprisonment, been shipwrecked three times, beaten with the cat of nine tails five times and with rods three times. He had known hunger, betrayal and hardship. His name was Saul of Tarsus. We meet him in the Bible under his better-known name, Paul.
Paul had a great heart because he had a great source of strength in his life. Very early in his Christian journey he had found that when the worries and stresses of life made him feel totally inadequate for the task, it was then, paradoxically, that he was more prepared to let go and let God.
I believe that's a key to what Jesus shared with us in yet another paradox of Scripture: "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matthew 10:39).
With God in your life, weakness beats strength. And losing your life for the cause of the Kingdom beats saving it for yourself.