What Do You Do With Your Strength?*

 What do you do with your strength? As a kid, I looked forward to getting up on Saturday mornings and watching cartoons in my pajamas on the console TV while eating Sugar Smacks (wow, just wow, but that’s another conversation). I anticipated the mindless entertainment of a good, humorous Looney Tunes short. Mel Blanc was the man of a thousand voices and he voiced the cartoons in a way that seemed to perfectly match the characters. One that I remember was Ralph the Wolf (who looked strangely like Wylie Coyote) and Sam the Sheepdog. They would both greet each other pleasantly and punch their time card. Then "it was on!" Smart and savvy, Ralph would try to steal the unassuming and vulnerable sheep in some novel way, sometimes even dressing up like the sheep to get closer to them, but the then strong, protective Sam would catch him, disable the predator in some way, return the sheep to safety, and bring peace back to the flock.

We all have strengths. The important question is, “what do we do with our strengths?” Do we use them only for our own advantage, to exploit the weaknesses of others? Do we keep others down or do we use our strengths to protect and elevate others, bring peace, and help people thrive? It really depends on our identity and who we belong to… (to whom we belong, sorry English teachers). This world and its Evil Ruler say, “look out for number one,” you gotta look out for yourself because no one else is going to, its survival of the fittest, eat or be eaten, kill or be killed. Jesus says of the Evil One, he ONLY comes “to steal, kill and destroy.” But Jesus comes as a Shepherd, to love, save, protect, and help people thrive. So, If we belong to and identify with Jesus, we use our strengths to protect people, grow them, nurture them; we will have compassion for their weaknesses and love them well. However, if we belong to the Father of Lies, we will use our strengths to lie, cheat, and steal to take advantage of people and exploit their weaknesses for our own benefit, all while trying to appear "a good person," (i.e a wolf in sheep's clothing). Our society seems to value competitiveness over compassion most of the time.

When the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, was reminding the early church of who they belonged to, and how it was like them to act. He said love was most important. Jesus had said that those who belonged to Him would be known by their love for one another and Paul was reminding the church of what that kind of love looks like. He says, love is not self-seeking, “It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (1 Corinthians 13:7 NIV) When we get scared or are provoked or we are feeling vulnerable, sometimes we forget who are and Who we belong to and we go back to self preservation mode. We act like Ralph, taking advantage of and harming the sheep. It is in our human nature to look for weakness, whether we realize it or not. It is innate in us, we can spot vulnerability it from a distance. It is what we do with our strength when we discover a weakness in someone else, that reveals our identity… are we going to be a “Ralph” or a “Sam”? Predator or Protector? Child of the Devil or Child of God?

Hang in there people! God is always glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all!