Weekly Words

The Weakest Link

As embarrassing as it may seem, I was well into adulthood before I understood the cliché “a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.” I am not sure if it was the paradox of strong and weak, or just my propensity to be slow sometimes, but throughout childhood, adolescence, and my college years I heard the saying without quite grasping its meaning. Finally, one day while meditating by the still waters of a river a light shined down from heaven and the true meaning of the saying was revealed to me by a thunderous voice. OK, I’m just playing. I don’t recall when or where I was when it dawned on me, but I began to piece the saying together. You cannot know the maximum strength of a chain without knowing its breaking point. A chain breaks when one of its links can no longer take the pressure of the force being exerted on each end. Of all the other links, the one that breaks becomes the measuring rod for the strength of the entire chain.

I believe the concept found in this cliché is a valuable means of evaluating our spiritual lives. When assessing our spirituality we often have a tendency to look at what we do best as a means of convincing ourselves of our spiritual health. For some of us this means lauding the fact that we attend to church every Sunday, while others of us point to the ministry or ministries for which we give our commitment. Still there are those of us who brag about how holy and pious we are because we don’t drink, curse, and/or engage in sex outside of marriage. Some of us identify our spiritual health by our faithfulness in tithing. Finally, many of us simply convince ourselves that we are generally “good” people and thus our spirituality is fine. However, if the health of our spiritual lives is at all connected to the growth of our spirituality, then shouldn’t we be asking ourselves where we are weak and not where we are strong?

I want to challenge you this week to identify your spiritual “weakest link.” Maybe you are a good and pious person, but can not identify any intentional time and/or energy you give to God (via prayer, church, or activity in ministry). Could it be that you are a consistent tither, but never utilize any of your gifts, talents, and energy for higher purposes? Or maybe you are a constant in the life of your church, but when it comes to giving more than just your time you can never find it in our budget to give because all of your money is spent on bills, shopping, and entertainment. You may be a consistent church worshipper and worker, but your moral and personal discipline is a mess. If you are like me you are irritated at this point because your spiritual flaws are in competition for which will be identified as your weakest link. The point is that whatever your spiritual situation may be, your spiritual health is waiting on you to identify your weakest link (or links) and decide that you will attempt to grow in the Grace and Glory of God.

Humbly in Christ’s Love,
Pastor B.A. Jackson