Fragility

A friend recently made a tongue-in-cheek comment about the trending theology of contemporary worship: “God is great. And we are great.”

The truth is, this was not just a light-hearted or sarcastic perspective. There is a decrease in the confession of sin, the acknowledgement of vulnerability, and the embracing of the unresolvedness about our lives and circumstances in our worship songs.

Before the modern era, this kind of honesty was core to the liturgy of the church.

The truth is, we are fragile. And this fragility is not to be avoided, because it is in our fragility that our God has chosen to display his strength.

Therefore, Paul encouraged us to boast ‘gladly’ in our weaknesses, which he listed as insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities, so that we could more easily embrace Christ’s power. (2 Corinthians 12)

For the most part, our world wants to escape weakness. In contrast, Christianity offers power to flourish in weakness. When we remove fragility and brokenness from the message, we lose the opportunity for believers to engage with God honestly, and to more vividly encounter his power.

Today's song post is Searching Sight. The lyric was written by Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf from the Moravian revival, translated into English by John Wesley. These two men saw God move in power in their day. But they were unafraid to embrace their fragility.

Malcolm du Plessis