6 Ducere Est Servire: THE LEADERSHIP JOURNAL OF DALLAS BAPTIST UNIVERSITY Boasting in Weakness: The Irony of Christian Leadership Dale Braswell, Ph.D. Dr. Dale Braswell (Leadership Studies, '23) serves as Senior Director for Alumni and Parent Engagement at Dallas Baptist University. What are your strengths and weaknesses? This is a common question connected to any job application or performance review. Typically, someone may answer the first part with a litany of praiseworthy strengths an employer would desire in an employee. These responses are then accompanied by a more ingenious response for the second half of the question that technically meets a weakness requirement without sounding weak. Responses such as “cares too much” or “works too hard” are provided that demonstrate a lack of willingness of the person being interviewed to honestly divulge any real weakness on their part. However, what if the interviewee were honest about their flaws and shortcomings? Or, what if someone boasted of his or her qualities deemed as signs of weakness? In 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, the apostle Paul does just that. Paul recounts his experience with a mysterious “thorn in the flesh” that limited his ministerial abilities. Paul repeatedly pleads with God to remove this hindrance from his life. However, God states that He will not allow the thorn to be removed so that Paul will learn to trust in God’s grace to empower him for service. As a result, Paul proclaims that he will choose to boast about anything that will highlight God’s grace and power at work in his life. In their book Spiritual Leadership, Henry and Richard Blackaby note that the biblical record demonstrates how God often used individuals who did not possess the typical leadership competencies to achieve His purposes. The authors conclude with Paul that God loves to use people with weaknesses to highlight His strength.1
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