September 2, 2023
"PERFECT IN WEAKNESS"
Max Martini
Volunteer and MMM Board Member, Tennessee
"For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:10
Marion Medical Mission is an organization that thrives in impossibly difficult situations: despite a narrow seasonal window and limited funds, MMM builds more wells every year than should be possible throughout Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania, and Mozambique. They do so regardless of dangerous conditions, political corruption, and countless other hurdles. Considering the size of the organization, as well as its commitment to put 100% of donated funds directly to aid rather than to administrative or overhead costs, MMM’s impact in sustainable drinking water, education, medical support, and hunger relief throughout Sub-Saharan Africa is simply greater than should be possible.
However, in a way that would be paradoxical outside God’s kingdom, MMM makes such an impact not by strength or force of will but by humility, faith, and God’s grace. They listen to local people, including their miraculously dedicated field officers, and follow their lead. In doing so, they enact a rare form of servant leadership: they lead by serving and they serve by following. All along the way, they give God the glory for their successes and blessings. In other words, it is in their weakness — and not their force of will — that the strength of the MMM project is made manifest by the grace of God.
This approach is not the modern world’s favorite strategy for solving problems big or small. The world tells us that we should force solutions to problems big and small and that we should flex every strength we have in order to manipulate our circumstances according to our personal desires.
But Paul tells the Corinthians that God’s power is made perfect not in strength but in weakness. In 2 Corinthians 9, Paul says, “But [the Lord] said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” Thanks to Christ’s love — God’s grace — we lean not on our own strengths but rather on Him. We can boast not about our own successes and powers but rather our weaknesses, which bring us closer to Jesus. It is thanks to the cross that we can approach and be supported by God’s grace. And, as Paul says, we can do it with delight and joy.
Prayer: From the latter half of the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi: O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen/i>
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