“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 (ESV)

𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨

𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘍𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘓𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘏𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘓𝘦𝘧𝘵

When you feel like you have nothing left to offer, that’s exactly what you have to give.

Sometimes all you have to offer is your weakness. All you have to bring is your need. All you are able to muster is your weariness and emptiness—an ache in your heart that refuses to leave.

It’s easy to think that you only have something to give when your cup is running over, when you’re full to overflowing and it feels like an endless river is pouring in and out and through.

But sometimes you feel like the river has run dry. You’ve been drained down to the dregs, and all that remains is an empty vessel, a hollow shell of the one you know you can be.

At times like these, you might be tempted to question: how can this be a gift?

But what I want you to ask instead is this: how can it not?

If God calls us to lead lives of ongoing surrender and obedience (and I believe He does), then surely He would not leave us when we are weakest. Surely He would make a way for us to honor Him and serve others even when we feel empty of peace and full of need.

I know you long to be strong, to be the one that others lean on. It’s hard to be a shelter for others when you’re crumbling, yet that is exactly what you try to do. You want to be a bottomless pitcher of grace, someone that the blessing is always pouring through.

It’s especially easy to think this way when you’re a leader. When others look to you as an example, it’s natural to think that you must never show a sign of need. The mantle weighs heavy. Will others think less of you when they find out you’re not the bastion of strength they hoped you could be? How do you find the courage to admit that deep inside you’re as weak as they are?

Across the ages there rings this answer: you look to the cross. For it is there that we see what leadership looks like and what humility means.

Jesus was (and is) the greatest leader who ever lived, yet He was not afraid to submit Himself to weakness. Philippians 2:7 tells us that He “emptied himself,” choosing to lay aside His rights and take up the limitations of humanity. If we look further on in that passage, we see that Jesus’s choice to subject Himself to earthly humiliation was what led to His heavenly exaltation:

Jesus calls us to follow His example by leading others in lowliness, trusting that He will use us in our weakness and fill us with His strength.

Sometimes your need is all you have to bring. But even that can be a blessing, both to you and to others. When you’ve poured yourself out so that emptiness is all that remains, and when you willingly admit it and aren’t ashamed to name your need, you will uncover a source of power found only in the Lord.

Remember, when you feel like you have nothing left to offer, that’s exactly what you have to give.

𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘶𝘱𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴

As you can see, I am indeed still alive and writing. =) It's been a full and fruitful few months in the writing realm.

In October, I participated in the first-ever Crazy Writing Month, a challenge hosted by the writers' workshop I'm part of. That resulted in my writing the draft of the longest project I've finished so far, which I don't think I would have done had it not been for the accountability and encouragement provided by my wonderful writing community.

This month I've been taking part in the first-ever Jesus Writing Month, an event independently hosted by Justice Tilsher. That's been great too, and here in the latter days of November, I'm just a few thousand words away from my goal. I'm looking forward to finishing another (slightly shorter) draft this month as well.

Overall, this fall has been a productive season, with both of these challenges helping to provide a motivating factor for me to do more writing (word count wise) than I'd ever done before. While I don't know that I'd want to write that many words every month, it's been a good exercise for maintaining consistency and pushing me to heights I hadn't yet learned I was capable of.

𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘱𝘪𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘴

In other news, this month I got published again! I was so excited to get the news that one of my stories had been accepted into the Beyond the Bookery collection Glimmers of Gold.

This story, called As Pure as Gold, marks a couple of firsts for me: it's the longest story I've had published so far (a little over 50 pages), and it's my first foray into the realm of Christian romance. As Pure as Gold is not your typical romance story, though. Something I've noticed about the few romance stories I've read is that often the story ends once the couple gets married. There's nothing wrong with that; however, for a relentlessly curious type like me, I'm not completely satisfied when a story ends that way. I want to ask, what happens next? As Pure as Gold is my answer to that question. Rather than ending with the wedding, this story begins with the wedding (actually, a little before), then goes on to explore what happens after that commitment has been made. My purpose for this story is not to look at the love that causes you to say "I do," but rather, to delve into the love that unfolds afterward and grows over a lifetime together.

If that sounds like a story you would enjoy reading, you can find a copy of the book here. (And if you decide to get one, let me know: I'd be happy to send you the link to the inspirational playlist I created for this story as a little thank-you gift.)

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𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 (𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴)

“Dreams are a form that emptiness takes. They are the particular, unique shape of our own yearning. The emptiness itself is easy. We are born hungry. Hunger is the language of our infancy. Even adolescence can be summed up as a period of growing restlessness. But it takes years, a lifetime perhaps, to understand what we truly hunger for. To know the precise dimensions of that which will satisfy us.”

Christie Purifoy

ⓡⓔⓐⓓⓔⓡ ⓠⓤⓔⓢⓣⓘⓞⓝ

What's one blessing you have experienced this week?