BY: Teresa LeNeave - leneave2@comcast.net

There's a quote by Corrie Ten Boom that challenges me and I hope it does you, too. She wrote: "One of the hardest lessons in faith is learning that your weakness is not the end of the story. When your strength runs out, your wisdom fails, and your control disappears ... that is not where hope dies. ... That is where dependence begins. The Christian life was never meant to be lived in your own strength. Your inability is often the doorway to Christ's power."

Her idea of faith is certainly not the mindset of many of us who find pride in independence, in personal strength and in striving for self-sufficiency. Weakness is something we're taught to overcome, or worse, something to hide. Corrie Ten Boom's idea of faith corresponds more closely to the Bible than perhaps ours does. She believed weakness is not a dead end, but an invitation to know God in a deeper relationship.

As you know, Corrie Ten Boom, endured the unimaginable suffering of the Holocaust and claims something greater than human strength helped her come out a survivor. One thing I like about her is that she owned her weakness, but she let her faith in the Almighty God redefine it.

If you've been a Christian for long, you'll agree, faith is not about having it all together. None of us have it "all together". There is a little weakness in all of us. Not even one Bible character had it "all together" and I think that's one reason I love the Bible so much. Faithful men and women of the Bible were just like us. They had times of weakness. Times of sickness. Times of pain. But they endured because they were seeking a greater place. We need God, too.

There are moments in every life when our own strength is weak; when we want to give up; when we want to run the other direction to ease the pain, but I believe if we let it, those moments can be our turning point. There's a place where we surrender our own personal strength and accept the strength that comes from "peace that passes all understanding". (Philippians 4:7). It's in these moments when the devil will try to tell us we've failed, but don't listen to him.

Dependence on God is not defeat.

What struck me about Ten Boom's statement that the "Christian life was never meant to be carried by human strength alone", is that she knew the discomfort of a bad situation. She was speaking from experience. In all her darkest hours, she hung onto faith in God. It worked for her and it will work for us.

This doesn't mean weakness is desirable, because it's not. What it does mean is that "what the devil meant for evil, God can turn around and make it good. (Genesis 50:20). Pain and uncertainty are real, but so is God's power to heal, cleanse and restore. Like Corrie Ten Boom says, "our lowest points are not where the story ends".

In a world that tells us to rely on ourselves, the Bible reminds us that faith is less about holding everything together and more about trusting when things fall apart. Our weakness may be the very doorway through which our faith becomes stronger and more efficient.