There comes a time when we can no longer pretend to have it all together. The cracks begin to show—the tired spirit, the anxious thoughts, the silent disappointments. We pray for the weakness to be taken away, for the thorn to be removed. But what if the healing comes not in erasing the weakness, but in discovering a deeper grace within it?
Paul pleaded for his thorn to be taken from him. Instead, he received a greater gift: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)
Like a jar repaired with gold in the art of Kintsugi, our fragile places are where God’s strength is revealed most vividly. The very weaknesses we try to hide may become the very canvas for divine power.
We are not disqualified by our struggles. We are shaped by them. The thorns we carry keep us grounded, dependent, real. They invite us to stop performing and start trusting—to allow God’s strength to meet us, not in our polished places, but in our most vulnerable ones.
Grace doesn’t always remove the pain. Sometimes, it fills it with purpose. The cracks don’t disappear, but they no longer define defeat—they proclaim redemption.
The journey of self-realization, then, is not about outgrowing our weakness, but about understanding that God’s strength is not an addition to our own—it’s the light that shines through our broken places.
Prayer:
Lord, I offer You my weaknesses—not as something to be hidden, but as places for Your power to dwell. Teach me to see Your grace in the very things I once feared disqualified me. Fill my life with gold where I have been broken. Amen.
