Today’s To-Do List: Anticipate & Delight
In an unhealthy relationship many, many years ago, I remember how we would argue. He would be verbally abusive, and I would actually get a little excited because I knew that when he was really mean, he would eventually apologize and be really “nice.”
I was so starved for kindness and I knew some form of nice was coming. I eagerly anticipated it even in the midst of the fight.
Listen… that’s crazy thinking. My brokenness was all up in that thinking. I was believing that was all I deserved and the best I was ever gonna get, so I better take “nice” when it came. It makes me sad thinking of how I used to think like that and live like that.
But…now as a fully devoted follower of Jesus, what if in the midst of my weakness and my struggles, as my own lack becomes so clear, I could, like the apostle Paul, anticipate and delight? Delight! Because in my weakness I knew that the Lord was coming through with His strength. I could eagerly expect it, I could count on it.
You know what? I can and I do.
“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 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.”
– Paul, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
