2 Corinthians 12:8-10 NRSV
Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.

God’s power is made perfect in weakness. When we finally surrender to the truth of our weakness, to our primal need for God and others, we open ourselves to the full presence and movement of God in our lives. The weak walls of pride and self sufficiency crumble so that something new and better may rise from the dust of that death. God reminds us of this in Jesus, who in his vulnerability and poverty most perfectly revealed the strength of God’s love and power. – Lisa Degrenia <><

Poverty is not just a life of simplicity, humility, restraint, or even lack. Poverty is when we recognize that myself—by itself—is largely powerless and ineffective. John’s Gospel puts it quite strongly when it says that a branch that does not abide in Jesus “is withered and useless” (John 15:6). The transformed self, living in union, no longer lives in shame or denial of its weakness, but even rejoices because it does not need to pretend that it is any more than it actually is—which is now more than enough! -Richard Rohr

Extended quote from Journey: The Divine Reversal by Steve Harper
We do not go far into the biblical narrative before we run into an essential truth–one that if missed will skew everything else: God does not operate on our terms. When the fallen world is in charge, the rich, famous, and powerful are the heroes . When God is in charge, the “weaker ones” are most often people God chooses to use.

I put “weaker ones” in quotes only to make it clear that we are the ones who categorize, hierarchialize, and stigmatize. When God looks at the world everyone is a beloved son or daughter–a human being made in the image of God, just a little lower than the angels (Gen 1:26, Ps 8:5). With this identity, every person is precious and contributive to God.

But it takes a new set of eyes and ears to recognize this. If we want to go with God’s flow, we must repent (look at life in a new way) and convert (make a 180° turn). In this way we participate in the divine reversal rather than work against it.

Extended quote from The View from the Bottom by Richard Rohr
Most of us in the Northern Hemisphere have a view from the top even though we are nowhere near the top ourselves. The mass of people can normally be bought off by just giving them “bread and circuses,” as the Romans said. Many Americans can afford to be politically illiterate, hardly vote, and terribly naïve about money, war, and power. One wonders how soon this is going to catch up with us.

Only by solidarity with other people’s suffering can comfortable people be converted. Otherwise we are disconnected from the cross—of the world, of others, of Jesus, and finally of our own necessary participation in the great mystery of dying and rising. In the early Christian Scriptures, or the “New” Testament, we clearly see that it’s mostly the lame, the poor, the blind, the prostitutes, the drunkards, the tax collectors, the sinners—those on the bottom and the outside—that really hear Jesus’ teaching and get the point and respond to him. It’s the leaders and insiders (the priests, scribes, Pharisees, teachers of the law, and Roman leaders) who crucify him. That is evident in the text.

How did we miss such a core point about how power coalesces and corrupts, no matter who has it?

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