A WORD FOR TODAY, December 8, 2025
Peggy Hoppes
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Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, December 8, 2025
“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, WEB
I worked in retail when I was younger. I started as a cashier and floor clerk and went through a management training program for two different companies. I eventually worked my way through the ranks into a leadership position in whatever store where I worked. I loved it, but I worked incredibly long hours. My hours some weeks were as much as two full time jobs because I was not only working in my store, but I joined a store remodel project at another store. I was salaried at my store, but I earned overtime for the work I did at the other. It was good money, but it was exhausting to work seven days a week and as much as twelve hours in a day. In one three-week period I put in more than three hundred hours. I had no life outside my job. My only time of relaxation was during my hour-long commute, and I hit my bed as soon as I got home at night. It was a good thing that I was not married at the time, because I had no time for anyone.
I decided that I did not want another managerial job after I got married. I was happy to be a cashier and serve customers, to work a few hours a week. My resume made it easy to be hired, as a matter of fact, the home fashions department manager at a large mid-level retail chain snapped me up immediately. I loved it. I served many small business owners and enjoyed helping them make choices about color and fabric. I was very good at my job, and it didn’t take long for the general manager to take notice.
One day I spent hours helping a woman who was decorating a bed and breakfast. She walked out of the store after spending thousands of dollars, confident that her rooms would be beautiful and welcoming to her guests. She was so happy with her purchases that she wrote a thank you letter to the store manager, singing my praise. He called me into his office one day and thanked me for making such a good impression on our customers. He told me that her letter was not the first time he had noticed my hard work and enthusiasm. It made me feel good to know that I was doing my job well.
The department manager was not so thrilled. She was happy to hire me when she thought I could make her look good, but when my work brought attention to my own abilities, she began to worry. Despite my repeated assurances that I was only interested in a part time position, she was convinced that I was trying to steal her job. After all, why would I work so hard if I weren’t working to rise in the company? She was never happy about the job she had; she was constantly trying to work her way up to the next rung on the corporate ladder. Instead of being happy that I was making her department look good, she began to undermine the work I was doing. She found ways to make me fail. She gave me the worst hours and rejected any requests for time off. She stuck me in the warehouse as often as she could so I couldn’t work with customers. She had the power, but she was so frightened that she would lose her power that she destroyed herself in the process. I eventually quit that job and I heard that she was fired a short time later.
We live in a world where we are expected to strive to be the best, the highest, the strongest. We live in a world where we are expected to work not just to live, but so that we can move up the ladder. It is a world where accepting to be less than our potential is seen as weakness. Could I have been a good manager at that department store? Yes, I believe so. But I was happy with my job; it was enough.
Paul knew what it was like to live with “enough.” He recognized that true power was found in God’s grace. He didn’t need to strive according to the expectations of the world; he was happy to embrace weakness and let God’s strength shine through. As we journey through Advent, are we willing to be weak so that God can be strong? Are we willing to be less so that God can be more?
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