“That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” — 2 Corinthians 12:10

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There was a powerful feature aired during the 2026 Winter Olympic Games that talked about the centuries-long process of the building of the Milan Duomo Cathedral. Construction first began in 1386 and took nearly 600 years to officially finish, final details begin wrapped up in 1965. I can’t help but think of all the hundreds of workers who put their own mark on that building, never to see it completed in their lifetime. Talk about taking the long-term approach!

The piece went on, however, to equate this lengthy process of building the Duomo to the development of an Olympian, and one statement stuck with me: “Athletes learn to identify their imperfections, then build around them.”

When an athlete is training for something like the Olympics or even a lower sporting level or event, they discover how to notice what the weaknesses are in their mindset or their game so that they can then harness that in their training and use it to build the results they are looking for in their sport. Knowing your imperfections and learning how to maximize what you have is where it all starts for these individuals. They become comfortable with failure. They get used to taking their losses as information to improve for next time. All of the stumbles become setups for the future outcomes they are working toward.

Yet, when it comes to our personal or spiritual lives, I think most of us try our absolute hardest to eliminate our imperfections. We want to get rid of our weaknesses. We feel like we should never fail, and when we do, we beat ourselves up for it and feel guilty for not getting it right.

But this thinking will never serve us well if we hope to grow as a person or to do anything beneficial for God. Paul had to have this conversation with the Lord regarding his “thorn in the flesh.” We don’t know what it was, but it was obviously something annoying to him because he kept asking God to remove it from his life.

One day, he received his answer and it was simply this: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9a). Therefore, Paul’s response was, “I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. … I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9b-10).

See, the goal is not to remove our imperfections and erase every chance of ever failing, but to learn how to accept ourselves as flawed human beings who are a work in progress. Every single one of us is like the Duomo because Jesus is playing the long game here, and transformation isn’t happening overnight. It’s a slow, gradual work that, over time, begins to turn into something of a masterpiece. Not because we tried to wipe out every weakness, but because we let God use them to perfect His strength in us and showcase His grace in a mighty way. God is glorified the more we have to depend upon Him.

Maybe you need to give yourself a little grace and realize that God is doing a work in your life that’s going to take a minute. So why don’t you relax into the Master’s mercy and trust that “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion…” (Philippians 1:6).

— Katherine Singer

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