Weakness. Oh, how Pride hates him.
Perfect, on the other hand, is Pride’s best friend. The thing about Perfect is that she doesn’t settle for anything less than the best, which is one of the attributes that Pride admires so much about her. She’s a hard-worker, and she’s good at what she does. She’s well-respected and recognized for her accomplishments.
Weakness also admires Perfect’s hard work and dedication, but, unlike Pride, Weakness sees beneath Perfect’s confident exterior which boasts in strength, self-sufficiency, and security. Weakness knows Perfect’s dirty little secret: that she’s afraid of failure.
Weakness has tried talking to Perfect about it, but Pride is such a wooer. He’s so affirming of all of the work that Perfect’s doing to support raise (face-to-face appointments, handwritten thank-you cards, prayer, travel, newsletters) that Weakness can’t even get a word in. Pride’s praise fuels Perfect’s genuinely good intentions to follow Jesus, but she’s balancing on a very fragile tightrope; and Weakness knows that this tightrope of achievement is very close to breaking and that Perfect is one step away from falling victim to Pride’s lie that she has to support raise by her own strength instead of the Lord’s.
After five weeks of walking on her tightrope of self-sufficiency, Perfect realized that she wasn’t sufficient enough. She could no longer carry the burden that she and Pride had placed on herself.
So she fell.
But just when she anticipated to hit the ground in self-proclaimed failure, Perfect was surprised to find herself in the comforting arms of Weakness. Ashamed, Perfect couldn’t even look Weakness in the eyes as tears rolled down her face. But Weakness, with his soft, gentle touch, wiped Perfect’s tears as he turned her gaze towards his. He looked at her tenderly and said, “You look tired. Why don’t you come and rest?”
Although she didn’t want to admit it, Perfect was tired and desperately needed rest. Pride wouldn’t let her off so easily, continuing to whisper lies about how Perfect’s self-worth was connected to her accomplishments, but he fell silent when supporters joined Perfect’s ministry team even though Perfect did nothing but rest. And the moment Pride stopped talking and Perfect stopped working, she could hear that soft, subtle Truth that Weakness had been trying to tell her all along: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”