One of my favorite movies from last summer is Planes produced by DisneyToon Studios. Besides the adorable animation and the cute story line, it has very memorable characters (two of which are Navy fighter jets, voiced by Val Kilmer and Anthony Edwards, ala Top Gun...which of course goes over big in our Naval aviator household!). Personally, however, I was most taken with the main character, Dusty Crophopper. If you are not familiar with the story, let me fill you in for just a quick minute...
Dusty Crophopper is a crop duster plane who works at a cornfield and dreams of becoming a racer. Not surprisingly, most of his colleagues think he is foolish and underqualified to aspire to this position, and he has many obstacles to face! But after barely qualifying for the Wings Across the Globe race, he soon convinces an old reclusive WWII fighter plane named Skipper to mentor him and teach him how to race. What I find most fascinating about Dusty, however, is that he struggles with a fear of heights. Imagine that--a fear-stricken crop duster aspiring and training to be a racer! HA! Sadly, despite Skipper's insistence to the contrary, Dusty does most of his flying low to the ground (or water), and even flies through a mountainous train tunnel (barely avoiding a catastrophic train collision) rather than flying over the mountains. Dusty does make it to the end of the race, despite serious injury and personal disillusionment, but I'll wait to tell you how the movie ends for him later in this post!
Now, what does this movie have to do with me? Well, I must admit that I am much like Dusty Crophopper! I, too, have ambitions...or "callings"...that the Lord has placed on my heart, but, like Dusty, I struggle with fear. I dream of teaching women from the Word of God, speaking to them in large groups in fact, and yet I have a fear of public speaking! I feel the call of God on my life to make the Gospel known throughout the Earth...and yet I have a fear of driving in many circumstances...on interstates, over long or narrow bridges, over large distances...and sadly, on my worst days, even sitting in claustrophobic traffic causes me great discomfort. I'll save more of the details about my particular anxieties for another post, but the point I'd like to make today is that I am convinced that our weaknesses, fears, doubts, insecurities, and even things like depression or anxiety can be used of God for mighty things in our lives as believers. Praise God! The Apostle Paul admonished us as believers to "boast in our weakness." He stated, "If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness" and he went on to relay the humiliating story of getting lowered over the Damascus city wall in a basket to escape an angry mob (2 Corinthians 11:30). He stated that by boasting about his weaknesses, he enabled people to not think more highly of him than they ought (2 Corin 12: 6). Now, this is a man who had plenty of personal strengths to boast about--his pedigree, his education, his zeal, his righteousness. However, compared with being found in and known by Christ, he considered all these things to be "rubbish" (Philippians 3:3-10). Instead, Paul focused his attention on discussing his infamous "thorn in the flesh"...
"So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations [of the third heaven] a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he 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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Corin 12: 7-10)
So, instead of hiding my weaknesses and fears and fleshly limitations from others (which is ALL of our default modes!), I am beginning to warm to the idea of opening up about them and sharing about my struggles. Do I consider them to be a "thorn in the flesh?" Well...yes and no...we will talk more about that in tomorrow's post. But one thing that I DO know is they keep me humble, teachable, and unlikely to judge others, regardless of what they are going through! I am convinced we all struggle with something--whether that is food, fear of other people's opinions of ourselves, phobias, a painful past, physical ailments and pains, sin--but it can all be used of God to bring us closer to Him and to bring more glory to Himself, not us. As Paul so aptly stated in 2 Corinthians 4:7, "But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that this surpassing power belongs to God and not to us."
Amazingly, Dusty Crophopper learned to face his fear of heights to ultimately save Skipper's life and win the Wings Across the Globe race to victory! YAY! And who knows what the Lord will do in my life and where HE will take me? (I am glad HE knows!) But one thing I DO know--whatever I accomplish on this Earth, it will not be the result of my personal strength and abilities, but in spite of my weaknesses, making it clear that the Lord is the source of my strength and my enabler! For now, I keep this little toy of Dusty (pictured above, and yes, he is MINE and not the kids!) out on my dresser as a gentle reminder of all that God can do through me and my weaknesses. May I NEVER boast in my perceived strength, but only boast in my weakness and the strength found in God alone!
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