So you think you're strong? How about a beetle?

That's what I said. The Rhinoceros beetle can lift and drag something 850 times it's weight. To put it into couch potato terms, that would be like your favorite idiot getting handcuffed on Cops and then turning around and throwing the cop car over a fence. Pretty strong little insect when you think in those terms. The problem is the definition of strength is always changing.


Now that little bug is strong in his world but if he meets the heel of my Nike he is going to be a dead beetle. 850 parts of him will be smeared across the floor. Not so tough now is he? Then maybe strength should be relative to the situation and surroundings. Pro football players are tough. Tough enough to hold the hand of a dying homeless man? Hockey players are tough. Legendary tough. Tough enough to counsel an abused mother of four about how to leave her husband and raise her children by herself without a job or skills?


You see, tough is not always about strength. Being physically strong is great. Being intellectually strong is great as well. Being emotionally tough can be good too. But how strong is your grace? Your forgiveness? Your empathy? Are you strong enough to forgive when you have been treated badly? Strong enough to not cast judgement on the shortcomings of others? Are you empathetic enough to love people who have shown you no love at all? These are the tests of strength that don't wane over time. Grace goes on forever once granted. Forgiveness doesn't get a roll of belly around it's middle. True empathy doesn't have to do sit ups.


Here is the strangest thing to me. The toughest among us are usually not the strongest. The truly tough have to fight and claw through life because they may be smaller or weaker. Or just born into a bad situation that forced them to become tough long before they should have. Show me a tougher man than one who had to keep his Dad from hitting his Mom. Show me a tougher girl than one who grew up at her Grandmothers because her Mom left her. Show me someone tougher than a kid growing up bouncing from one foster home to the next. Now that's tough.


Maybe now is the perfect time to ask ourselves,"How tough am I?" "Who am I helping this holiday season? Am I extending grace to people? Am I giving my time to those who need it? Am I leaving judgement of people to whom it belongs?" Because those answers really determine how strong we are or are not. And I prefer to strong in the qualities that go on forever. Give me strength in grace, forgiveness and empathy and I'll be happy. Because the heel of God's Nike is probably pretty big and I don't want to find out.

Till next......