Embrace Your Weaknesses

February 28, 2008 by Stephen Palmer · Leave a Comment

We waste so much time and energy lamenting our flaws and weaknesses. If only I was taller, we think. If only I could sing better. If only I was a faster reader. If only I was a more persuasive public speaker. If only I didn’t have to wear glasses. If only I could run faster and jump higher. If only…

If only we could realize that our weaknesses are hidden pearls, possible goldmines of opportunity and success. Then we could fully submit to God, accept — rather than resist — our current state, embrace our weaknesses, and unleash our potential. Our weaknesses, far from being annoying obstacles, can be precious keys that open the doors to our success, wealth, and happiness.

It was precisely the weakness of the American army during the Revolutionary War that led Washington to be creative, to innovate and beat the British the only way that they could have been beaten. Thomas Jefferson was shy and considered himself a poor public speaker. Is it any wonder, then, that he found his voice through writing, and produced one of the most powerful political documents in all of history? Louis L’Amour began as a second-rate writer, and his numerous rejection slips propelled him to travel the world and work various jobs to gain the experience and insight that led his treasured tales of adventure.

Jacques Lusseyran, a leader in the French Resistance to the Nazis, also found his greatest strength because of a weakness.

At the age of eight, Jacques lost his sight in an accident at school. The result? “I began to look more closely,” wrote Jacques in the classic And There Was Light, “not at things but at a world closer to myself, looking from an inner place to one further within, instead of clinging to the movement of sight toward the world outside.”

Jacques developed an inner sensitivity, a deep intuition about people and events that was unparalleled amongst his peers. When the Nazis invaded France, Jacques rose as a natural leader in the resistance movement, organizing six hundred youth to distribute pamphlets and flyers exposing Nazi atrocities.

Without his “weakness” of being blind, Jacques would not have developed the internal fortitude and piercing discernment that his duties necessitated. “Sight is a miraculous instrument offering us all the riches of physical life,” Jacques wrote. “But we get nothing in this world without paying for it, and in return for all the benefits that sight brings we are forced to give up others whose existence we don’t even suspect.”

Intrinsic to the universe is a divine scheme of compensation: our greatest strengths coexist with our most glaring weaknesses. However, this cannot be discovered if our energy is spent primarily on animosity towards our weaknesses. Trying to overcome weaknesses with animosity is like fighting fire with fire.

The fires of weaknesses can only be extinguished by the water of acceptance. We must accept and embrace our weaknesses, and therefore open ourselves to the possibilities within our weaknesses, if we wish to overcome and profit from them.

The things that we resist with animosity grow and are magnified; the things that we love and accept are transformed in and through love. The more you resist your weaknesses by disliking them, the further you stray from the wonders that could be yours, and from fulfilling the critical mission that you were born for.

What are the things that you dislike most about yourself? Pay special attention to these, for these things are the seeds of your greatness.