We must become weak to be strong.

Lots can be said about the tragedy of Philip Seymour Hoffman who was sober for decades and died of addiction related events/behavior. He was neither a bad example nor a role model. He was a great talent and he had many valuable insights when he was at his best. He was a human being and a child of God and he died like each of us must die and too soon and of challenges that are common to each of us. We are all subject to the same human frailties as he was.

It doesn't really matter what paradigm you employ (well, it does, but not for this application), a great talent can be lost, a great light extinguished, and a precious life ended by giving an inch. I am reminded in my own life, at each level of progress over the sins, addictions, and negative attitudes that are a part of my past, that I am not too strong to slip. If I give an inch, a mile will be extracted.

The secret of great strength is in knowing our own vulnerability. I hate to have to preach this and know this at Hoffman's expense. His personal pain, disappointments, and tragedy are his own and only God knows his heart..

None of us is such a great role model that we do not need help beyond ourselves. None of us is so far gone that we have no hope. Some of us live high profile lives; some of us go through our days virtually unnoticed, except by God who gives us undivided attention. We must walk through this life with a humble confidence and a fearful faith – not the fear that terrifies, but the kind that holds our choices and destinies in deep reverence and knows that every move we make matters.

We can be "cured" and we can "relapse." We can stand and we can fall. We can be taken down by a microscopic virus or a minuscule choice.

Or we can have great victory and end this life well.

Paul wrestled with this in two places. Romans 7 is very familiar, but also @ Corinthians 12. The Message  (Click here for 2 Cor. 12:9-13) gets in our face with the humanity that Paul experienced coupled with and overwhelmed by the power greater than himself, the power of God. He walked and we must walk in constant and continuous dependence upon that which makes us strong …

… because it is not our own sheer willpower, our fame, our fortune, our success, or even our self-righteousness.

When we are weak, then we are strong.

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2 Corinthians 12:9-11