The Value of Weakness and Its Contribution to Success

Stop Overdoing Your Strengths
    by Robert E. Kaplan and Robert B. Kaiser 

From the February 2009 Issue of the Harvard Business Review

“The conventional wisdom in leadership development circles is that you should discover and capitalize on your strengths, assuming that they are aligned with some organizational need. No matter how hard you work on certain weaknesses, the logic goes, chances are you’ll make only marginal progress. Don’t waste too much time overcoming flaws; better to focus on what you do best and surround yourself with people who have complementary strengths.”

Heb 4:15  For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Rom 6:1  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
Rom 6:2  Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

So, in some circles of the business world, the recommendation is not to waste time on overcoming weaknesses, but, instead, focus on improving strengths to contribute to the success of your company.

The Bible would agree that we need to take advantage of our strength, but it discusses weakness from different perspectives, so we will discuss three of those perspectives, today.

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Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.
Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.
Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

The power of sin in a converted Christian is incontrovertible. The Apostle John will corroborate this.

1Jn 1:8  If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

And for anybody who has followed the process of repentance, been baptized, and received God’s Holy Spirit, the wretchedness (to reference Paul) of sin is all the more glaring. So, when we sin, we feel the pain of sin worse than before conversion. We know a heartfelt contrast between choosing a lawful behavior and an unlawful behavior.

We feel this because:

1. We believe behavior, both good and bad, has consequence as defined by God alone.
2. We have felt the joy of salvation, being made clean through Jesus Christ.
3. We have had the heartfelt experience of being blessed as we walk in the Spirit of Christ.

Rom 8:6  For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Rom 8:7  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.
Rom 8:8  So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Rom 8:9  But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
Rom 8:10  And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
Rom 8:11  But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit which dwells in you.

So, one category of “weakness” is that we are still capable of sinning, but let’s look further into weakness…

2Co 12:9  And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
2Co 12:10  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Here we see “weakness” in terms of suffering physically, not because of any evil we’ve done, but for Christ’s sake.

So weakness to this point is described as both weakness for making mistakes and also weakness to accentuate the power of God. But there’s one other innuendo I would classify as weakness, and it’s a comparative weakness to other humans.

1Co 1:19  For it is written: "I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND BRING TO NOTHING THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE PRUDENT."

1Co 1:25  Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
1Co 1:26  For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.
1Co 1:27  But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;
1Co 1:28  and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are,
1Co 1:29  that no flesh should glory in His presence.

Brethren, this may not be true across the board, and I would prefer not to be the person to classify you as such, for God can and has called wise, mighty, and noble people. But, speaking for myself, I am not one of those people, and my weakness in comparison to many in the world is another opportunity for God to show His power to convert, His power to provide wisdom, and use people otherwise uninclined to do mighty works and carry out noble acts.

Our weakness is priceless. It is priceless because:

1. Our weakness for sin is our repeated reminder of the value of God’s righteousness and provision, for by the power of God’s Spirit in us we can and must overcome so that this body of cursed flesh can be changed by God to spirit life.
2. Our weakness through trial for Christ’s sake creates an avenue for us to become strong by the power of God to endure and continue to reflect His righteousness.
3. As a rule of thumb, our weaknesses in comparison to the strengths found among other humans in this world is an opportunity to reveal God’s mighty power to convert even the weak of the world, which also confounds the wisdom, might, and nobility of the world.

You see, in spite of all these forms of weakness, we have full confidence that we have God’s mercy and His favor. We have a Savior who has lived our struggles, yet without sin, so these definitions of weakness are priceless to our conversion, our testimony, and our salvation.

In the end, these weaknesses, then, all significantly contribute to reflecting God’s strength while developing our strength, by the Spirit of God, learning to make decisions and take actions based on loving God with our whole being and loving all humans as ourselves. May we all take pleasure in weakness as God’s strength becomes our strength to overcome and grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus, and we then become the poster children of the might and power of God to save imperfect man.