From strength to strength
“May you go from strength to strength!”
This blessing, echoing a phrase from Psalms 84:7, is one of many gifts I have gained over the years of my dialogue and partnerships with Jews. The sentiment of the phrase seems clear, at least to Merriam-Webster online, which defines it as becoming “better or more successful as time passes.” In practice in the Jewish community, people use it as simultaneous congratulations and blessing when someone has achieved a goal, a promotion, a personal best, when they have mastered a new skill or scored a difficult victory. “May you go from strength to strength” honors the strength in what has happened and looks ahead to the gains and growth yet to come.
Julia Child, the renowned food author and media figure of the twentieth century, could be understood to have gone from strength to strength in another way. As a young college graduate during World War II, she served in the OSS, the precursor to the CIA, as a researcher in the director’s office and in the Emergency Sea Rescue Equipment command. There, in what has been called “her first foray into the world of cooking,” she developed a repellent chemical to prevent sharks from prematurely detonating underwater ordnance.
In the postwar years, she moved from espionage and military materiel to French cuisine. Her landmark 1961 best-seller, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, led to many more books and a television empire embracing more than a half-dozen shows spanning three decades. As strong as she had been in her OSS career, she went from strength to strength when she discovered French food and introduced it to American audiences. She didn’t become a better or more successful spook; she went from one strength to another strength.
All our strengths, of course, come from God. We receive them as people who give witness to God and who serve God’s will. Thus, the idea of going from strength to strength can take on yet a third sense, already seen in the Bible. The author of Psalms 147 says that the Lord’s delight lies not in the strength of a horse or the speedy legs of a runner, but in those who stand in awe of God and rely on the Lord’s reliable commitment (vss. 10-11). The strength and speed are but means to an end, which is making known the powerful presence of God in the world. The apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians that “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (2:19-20). In a profound way, those to whom God has given the gift of faith – the unfailing relationship of life with God – have gone from strength to strength. They have gone from their own strength as mortals, however impressive, to the strength that is theirs as children and servants of God, co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17) and witnesses to God’s grace and power.
Throughout the seasons of life, circumstances shift and change, opportunities arise and fade away, needs emerge that are met or that dissolve, moods wax and wane. Through all of this, we may go from strength to strength in a way that deepens and enriches something familiar. We may find that new areas of strength become important and former ones, less so. In all of it, God is at work giving us strength to make God real and present in the world for the good of all. In whatever way we find seasonal change to be true and even necessary, may we all be blessed to go from strength to strength.
-Peter A. Pettit, teaching pastor
