| Embrace Your Wimpiness - article by Joel Hempel A couple of Saturdays ago, many of you will remember the Kansas City Chiefs wild card football game against the Miami Dolphins at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.* You might also remember how cold it was, minus -4 degrees. The following day, Ken Clark and I jokingly talked about the wimps in Buffalo, NY, who postponed their game because they would have been playing in a blizzard with whiteout conditions and subfreezing temperatures. As I said, we were joking because you don’t want to be a fool – even if your opponent calls you a wimp! I suppose, in general, men, more than women, don’t want to be thought of as wimps. Some men reading this article may no longer be young and virile and the athletes we once thought we were, but we might still take a quick pose in front of a mirror, remembering our version of the good old days. What does all of this wimp talk have to do with the Christian faith? Ask St. Paul: I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses . . . For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). For Christians – men and women – to be at the top of our game and compete in life at a peak level – spiritually and in every other way, we are wise to embrace our wimpiness. Embracing your wimpiness has nothing to do with physical stature, incompetence, or aiming for mediocrity. It doesn’t mean trying out for the B team when you have varsity potential. Rather, to be a Wimp for Jesus is to recognize we don’t have the fundamental ability to live life on our terms and face our number one Adversary by ourselves. It’s counterintuitive, but God is telling us not only to own our shortcomings, weaknesses, and even our disabilities but also to celebrate and boast about them. Why? Because we are called to live in what some have called an Upside-Down Kingdom – one in which we find life in death, greatness in service, receiving by giving, Christ’s power in weakness, and to trust that all things [even the bad things] work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). To be a card-carrying Jesus wimp, we would be wise to empty ourselves of any illusion that we can handle life on our own and don’t need the Spirit of God until the following Sunday morning. Only then are we able – by God’s grace – to receive the abundant strength, wisdom, courage, and direction HE wants to give us for a rich and complete life. To do anything else would be equivalent to playing in an NFL football game in sub-zero, whiteout conditions, wearing only your shoulder pads and underwear. It’s that foolish! Thanks be to our Lord Jesus Christ, who gives us all the grace and mercy we need to be his beloved and embraced wimp. For in this Spirit-inspired identity is His strength. *January 13, 2024 | 
