Boasting in Powerlessness

Part 3 of a series.... Part 1: Powers, the Church, and Powerlessness
Part 2: Power and the Church

"If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness" (2 Cor. 11:30).

"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor. 12:9-10).

Boasting in Powerlessness: Paul writes frequently of his weakness. One question is if our church can boast of the same thing (see Power and the Church blog in the link above). A second question is, does this boast of Paul's offer hope to those already powerless? How does it strike them? More later, but just a couple of portraits today....

“Yesmina” watched her father beat her mother regularly. She remembers cowering in the corner as he yelled at her and slammed her against the wall. She vowed never to be “weak” again. She would protect herself.

“Lila” was raped at a young age. Little, young, powerless against the perpetrator. Big, strong, guilt-heaping, shame-shifting, POWER. She meditates on the verses about being weak, and the intrusive memories of her trauma come flickering back. The filter of her life experiences distorts the text and the meaning of Paul’s inspired words. The resounding words of the pastor from the pulpit echo deep into her soul and rouse up those fears of weakness, those memories that jump up and control her once again… Just discolllected flashes of sight and sound and physical feeling. For Lila, like other PTSD victims, the memories are more than just memories—she relives the trauma. Her brain was unable to properly process the trauma and created a discollected memory. When this part of her brain is triggered, it has physical reactions. Her body goes into hyperarousal. She escapes the “sanctuary” for safety and stands out there, unable to think. She stares blankly—disassociated. She can’t talk as her disassociated, fragmented brain is truly unable to express or process linguistically. She is in another world—not in the present, with no hope for a future, but caught in a netherland of the past that is now.

What does boasting of weakness mean to them—not just in general, but to them?

First of all, a caveat. Some church traditions have taken the idea of weakness and suffering and made it out to suffer in silence as a victim, letting the sin of abuse go unnoticed. They have twisted what it means to boast in our weaknesses. Domestic violence victims are counseled to submit out of love. I have to ask—is it love to let the perpetrator continue in his sin to his own destruction (eternal destruction if he isn’t a Christian?), her living nightmare, and a shaping horror for their children?

Second, it is the victim's life experiences that distort the words. I fully believe the words of Paul about our weaknesses are inspired. And, I believe they carry hope, an incredible hope. But I think we need to be aware of how some in the body of Christ are wounded and carry these emotional, physical, and spiritual wounds around--and how those wounds influence thier relationship with the church. It emphasizes our need for a compassionate, correct, theology and hermeneutic of these passages. They offer hope, but need to be seen in their right context--in the context of an apostle who was abused and traumatized in many ways, who had the Liberator of prisoners, the Opener of the eyes, the Freer of the captives, the Renewer of the heart living through him.