Why God Gives Us Greatness in a World That Breaks Us
SJW – Saint Joseph Workshop Blog
Psalm 106 shakes us because it shows the fragility of the human heart. Israel saw the Red Sea split, manna fall from heaven, and the mountain tremble with the presence of God — and yet they built a golden calf within days. A people rescued by miracles collapsed under impatience.
It’s easy to look at that story and feel disgust: How could they fall so fast? How could they replace God so easily after everything He did? But the truth is deeper and more uncomfortable: they are us. Their story is the blueprint for the human condition — and for God’s mercy.
1. God Gave Us Great Faculties Because He Wants Sons, Not Slaves
We were created with:
intellect to know God,
a will to choose Him,
memory to recall His works,
desire to reach toward Him.
These aren’t flaws — they’re marks of divine lineage. Being made in God’s image means having the capacity for relationship, not automated obedience. But where there is real freedom, there is real vulnerability. Love without the chance to walk away isn’t love; it’s programming.
God gave us greatness, but greatness must be chosen.
2. Our Weakness Isn’t a Defect — It’s the Arena for Love
The weakness we hate — the flesh, impulse, forgetfulness, emotions that pull us off balance — is where faith becomes real. If choosing God cost us nothing, it wouldn’t be meaningful.
Every battle against:
temptation,
pride,
resentment,
anger,
lust,
fear,
discouragement,
…is a moment where love is tested and chosen.
Our fragility makes room for grace. It keeps us from arrogance. It keeps us dependent.
3. Why Do People Fall So Fast Even After Seeing God Move?
Miracles shock the senses but don’t anchor the soul. Israel saw wonders yet forgot; Peter walked on water yet denied; Adam sinned in paradise.
The human heart leaks unless it is constantly filled.
Faith isn’t a monument — it’s a daily manna. The moment we stop gathering, we starve. This is why Moses, prophets, Christ, and the saints continually warn: remember. Forgetfulness is spiritual death.
4. So Why Does God Keep Returning to Us?
This is the mystery that breaks open the heart of the Father:
He does not love us because we are steady. He loves us because He is steady.
God didn’t walk away from Israel after the calf. Jesus didn’t disown Peter after he denied Him. The Father didn’t slam the door on the prodigal son.
Divine love is not human-sized.
Where we expect punishment, God begins with mercy.
5. Our Fragility Magnifies His Mercy
Paul said, “When I am weak, then I am strong,” because weakness is where God shows Himself. The parts of us that feel like failure — the quick falls, the slow growth, the tug-of-war — become the very places where grace builds its foundation.
If we were naturally strong, we’d never know His strength.
If we never fell, we’d never know His patience.
If we never forgot, we’d never learn to cling.
Weakness is not the enemy. Sin is the enemy.
Weakness is where God meets us.
6. Feeling Sick at Humanity’s Fall Is a Sign of Your Maturing Soul
The disgust you feel reading the stories of Judges, Kings, and Exodus isn’t judgment — it’s awakening. You are starting to see things not from a worldly angle, but from God’s heart. You feel the ache of a Father whose children forget Him.
That reaction is grace working in you.
7. The Real Truth About the Human Condition
We have God-sized faculties placed into world-worn flesh.
We are:
eternal souls walking through a temporary world,
God-seeking spirits carrying hearts easily distracted,
heaven-bound minds surrounded by earthly noise.
Life is not about proving our strength.
Life is about staying near the One who is strong.
And that is why Psalm 106 repeats the same pattern: Israel falls, God rescues; Israel forgets, God remembers.
Because the story of salvation is not about our grip on God — it is about His grip on us.
Closing Word for the Men of SJW
If you feel the tension between your desire for God and your weakness, that means the workshop is working. God is shaping you, sanding you, chiseling you like wood in the hands of Saint Joseph.
You’re not meant to be flawless.
You’re meant to be formed.
And the One forming you is patient.
Saint Joseph, guardian of the Worker, strengthen us in weakness and teach us to cling to God daily.