"My grace is enough; it's all you need.  My strength comes into its own in your weakness." 
II Corinthians 12:9 (The Message)

So much about how God has set things up seems backwards, upside down, just plain wrong, at times! 

We may spend much of our lives trying to "get it together," i.e., becoming financially set, making good friends, honing a particular skill, being a part of a vital church fellowship, becoming good at our job, taking good care of our bodies, having a good marriage, raising our children in such a way that they can live well, preparing well for retirement, etc. 

Even though I see evidence of it all the time, it still doesn't seem right that the glory of God is often revealed through the cracks in our armor, through the very things we wish we didn't have to deal with.  I think the reason it doesn't seem right to me is because I have a smidgen of pride left that wants to claim credit for anything good that comes from me, so when it comes through what is humbling, embarrassing, even humiliating, it's hard to claim credit. 

So, while I am working to get it together, God is working to take me apart.  God knows the way I put myself together in response to life's experiences and how badly I need to be dismantled, so that I can choose Life, and that is not "having it together!"  All the good things mentioned above cannot reveal beauty.  They are more likely to cover the true beauty that emerges only from embracing one's brokenness.

Jesus's lowering himself to our level and his death on the cross is sometimes called His "humiliation."  Why is it that I always have a wooden cross laying on the table in front of me when I talk with people?  Why just this morning did I gratefully and firmly hold a smaller wooden hand cross for a bit?  How does this symbol of humiliation give me hope?

Like you, I am not what I appear to be.  Underneath the surface in me lie some dead men's bones, sorry to say. 
And some of them stink, because there's a little rotting flesh left on them. (I think it's a little, but who knows?)  I use deodorizers so most of the time people can't smell it (at least that I am aware of - sometimes people are kind enough to not mention everything they smell).  Unfortunately sometimes I get so used to it even I can't smell it.  I try to remember how thankful we were for the stinkin' manure we cleaned out of the barn when I was growing up because of it's power to enhance growth when spread on the fields, but I keep forgetting.

Occasionally I recall how the times of greatest blessing in my life come from times when my true humanity and sinfulness is exposed and all I have is the grace of Christ to depend on for my Life.  And I wonder why I ever try to "keep it together."

Could it be that that fella that comes around that smells so bad is a gift to me?  Maybe it is me.  Maybe it is You.

"Jesus, I am often afraid to really let go of trying to get my life together.  I'm afraid if I let go of trying to change myself and others into something better, all hell will break loose and I will lose everything that matters.  At times like that would you remind me of the courage you had to let yourself come apart, to be broken because you loved and because you really did know the way to Live?  And help me to learn to not underestimate how much you can use my weakness for blessing. Thanks so much. Amen"