The Strengths of Our Weaknesses – Sunday, November 28, 1982
If we saw a person who could not even hear sounds struggling to be a musician, or a lawyer so shy that he could not bring himself to speak up in the courtroom, or a cripple aspiring to be an Olympic racer, we might be tempted to pity these people and wonder why they didn’t choose some profession for which they were better suited. We certainly would not suspect they would succeed, but in these three cases we would be wrong. For we would be looking at Ludwig Van Beethoven creating his immortal Ninth Symphony. Our shy lawyer would one day be the great Indian leader, Mahatma Gandhi, and our crippled runner would be Glen Cunningham who dominated the mile run in the 1940’s.
The list of people who have achieved in the very areas they seemed unsuited for is so long that it makes one question our basic assumptions about strengths and weaknesses. Many people seem to succeed not in spite of, but because of their so-called shortcomings. Why is this?
Sydney Harris wrote, “The best occupations are those which not merely call upon our talents and abilities, but those which somehow also employ our defects, allowing us to transform them in the service of our virtues.”1
There is truth in this. Beethoven’s strength was in his musical genius. His weakness, at least in human relations, was a lack of concern for others. But the combination of these two traits allowed him to forge ahead fearlessly into uncharted musical waters despite his critics.
Gandhi had strengths in his intelligence and knowledge of law, but his weakness was his abhorrence to open confrontation. This made him a poor trial lawyer, but a powerful leader in India’s non-violent revolts against colonial rule.
Glen Cunningham had crippled legs as the result of a fire, but his strength was a powerful will and heart. In the process of overcoming his weakness he developed speed, strength and stamina that made him a champion.
Each of us is blessed with both strengths and weaknesses. We need to develop and use our strong points and talents, of course, but let us not ignore or despise our weaknesses. Let us give thanks for them and use them in the service of our strengths.
Our weaknesses can also help us stay humble and thereby tap the strength available to us from the Lord. Perhaps this is what the Apostle Paul had in mind when he wrote, “I…glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”2
1 Sydney Harris, “The Deseret News, August 19, 1981, p. A-5
2 New Testament, II Corinthians 12:9.
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November 28, 1982
Broadcast Number 2,780