The Glossary

Weakness Series Part 4: Adversity and the Embrace of Weakness

Our world is captivated by success. The cult of celebrity. Reality TV. The pursuit of wealth, status, and power. Materialism. Ladder climbing. Most kids now dream of being social media influencers when they grow up. Disfigured by the Fall and raised with the Darwinian narrative of “survival of the fittest” in the background, we can’t help but crave power and influence. Sadly, the church doesn’t look a whole lot different from the world in this regard. We too are fixated on power and influence. We define church success by numbers—attendance, budget, baptisms. We exalt the megachurches and follow “celebrity” pastors. We elevate the people on platforms over the people serving faithfully in the background. Staff members and church leaders vie for power. We relish being “new,” “novel,” “fastest growing,” or any label that sets us above. In our fallenness, we are fixated on self. We are blinded by the desire to be Godlike (Gen 3:5) and have unconsciously adopted its corresponding aversion to weakness (because any hint of weakness reminds us of the limits we work so hard to deny). We have inherited from Adam and Eve patterns of hiding and covering our guilt and shame (Gen 3:7-10), and on top of these develop deep-rooted coping mechanisms and defense strategies to help us self-protect as we navigate life. We put our value in good grades, we seek perfection, we people-please, we hide behind knowledge, we put our security in our . . .