Between Feeble and Fierce

I would NOT consider myself a super hero movie fan. My kids constantly have to help me keep each of the characters straight and what their strengths and weaknesses are and what happened in the last movie. I do have to admit, though, that there is something incredibly inspiring when the hero reaches their point of greatest weakness, then rises up and wins the day.

These superheroes seem to exist on an internal sliding scale between feeble and fierce. One moment, Thor is at his most feeble point (don’t ask me to tell you which movie this is from): He’s being bested by his evil sister and it looks like he won’t prevail against her. Until…

The scale starts sliding…

In the next moment, he remembers his father and realizes through a seemingly supernatural conversation with his dad that his strength does not lie within his hammer. Boom. The scale tips and while Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song blasts in the background, Thor slides from feeble to fierce and becomes unstoppable.

Maybe we all live on this same sliding scale. Rather than letting disappointment paralyze us when we slide toward feeble, let’s figure out how to tip the scale back toward fierce. Here are my suggestions on how to do just that:

1. identify the lie

When we feel overcome by weakness in a particular area, it could be that we are unknowingly believing a lie. This showed up for me in the area of parenting when my kids were very small. During the crazy moments of meltdowns and accidents and everyone needing mommy at the same time, I often reached a point of all-consuming weakness. I believed I couldn’t do this. I believed I was not a good mom and I did not have what it takes to handle the stress of what was required of me. Maybe for you, these moments of weakness, of sliding down the feeble side of the scale, happen in your career or in a broken relationship or in your mental battles. In the Bible (remember that supernatural conversation Thor had with his dad? I think opening the Bible is a pretty darn close equivalent for us), Jesus says that the truth will set you free (John 8:32). In order for the truth to set you free and help you tip the scale back toward meeting life’s demands with fierce determination, you’ll have to admit that there’s something keeping you bound. Stop for a minute and consider what lie you might be believing.

2. identify the truth

After you identify a lie that might be fueling your feelings of feebleness, the next step is to pinpoint a truth to counteract that lie. For example, if you have a goal you want to reach but feel powerless to take steps toward it, deep down you may be thinking that if you try, you’ll fail. And you don’t want to come to terms with that. However, the truth is that failure is inevitable and it does not define us. What matters is not how many times we fall, but how many times we pick ourselves back up. The truth is that even in our failures, there is growth, there is forward motion. The truth is that we WILL reap good results if we do not give up trying (Galatians 6:9). The truth is that you haven’t even failed yet, so stop allowing yourself to be paralyzed by something that’s not even a reality. That’s just one example of how to counteract a lie with things that are truthful, things that are real. How can you apply this to the area where you feel the most feeble right now? What truth can you bring to mind that will dispel the power of the lie you’ve been believing? Focus on what it is real, and you’ll feel yourself sliding toward the fierce end of the scale.

‘Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.’
– Winston Churchill, English politician.

3. identify the priority

Does this sound familiar: You hit snooze 3 times and now you can no longer fit in a morning workout.

…and the scale slides toward feeble.

Why does this happen? So many reasons. But maybe one significant reason is that you’ve forgotten that your health goals are more important to you than sleeping 27 more minutes, and until you identify what your priorities are, the scale will continue to slide and you’ll be weak against the forces of extra sleep. The good news is that revisiting your priorities, bringing them to mind, posting them on your bathroom mirror, doing everything within your power to REMEMBER them will absolutely increase your resolve! The scale will tip, and with the same fierce glint in your eye as Thor, you’ll be unstoppable the next time your alarm goes off (maybe even with Led Zeppelin as your alarm tone!).

So, next time you evaluate yourself, instead of measuring how fierce or not fierce you are, measure how quickly you can tip the scale from feeble to fierce. Because whether we like it or not, if we’re human (or superhuman!), we slide back and forth between the two. And really what matters is that we don’t get stuck but that we keep moving forward.

"If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward." 

-Martin Luther King, Jr.