Sometimes we really don’t need someone to come along and give us a pep talk.
When life’s breaking us, we don’t need someone to come and shout, “Hey! You can do this! You’re amazing! Make your life whatever you want it to be! You are unstoppable!” because we’ve felt firsthand that those things are not right all the time.
We’ve all experienced failure.
We’ve hit roadblocks of all sorts.
We’ve felt that cluelessness when it comes to knowing what exactly we should do.
And so the pep talks often feel empty, shallow, phony. Hollow and falsely encouraging comments coming from people who seem to have their lives together when we do not.
Because often, instead of hearing “Hey, you’ve got this,” we long to hear Someone say, “I know this seems impossible, but I will be with you through all of it.”
We need less of “You’re amazing, and will succeed at everything you put your mind to,” and more of “It’s alright if you fail, because your identity does not rest on this one thing, or your performance, for that matter.”
We need to learn to be alright with being open about our struggles, and then to accepting Christ’s strength to carry us through whatever we face.
Because when we’re so used to relying on ourselves, so used to stuffing our pain, to hiding our uncertainty – we miss out on the blessing of being authentic, of receiving help from others in similar situations, and of being able to support those who need that help as well.
We can’t do this alone.
And a few pseudo-empowering statements aren’t gonna cut it.
We need to rest in the Savior, the One whose blood was spilled for us, the One who was enough for us, the One whose grace is there to cover us.
Jesus. We need to embrace more of Jesus, and less of ourselves. Less of what we think our identity should be, less of the achievements we think will make us better people, less of the pressure to succeed, less of the pressure to build our lives on things that ultimately won’t matter in the end.
The beauty found in being vulnerable and honest isn’t found when we make life all about us.
Beauty is found in vulnerability, because in light of our weaknesses, we get a glimpse of what can happen when we look beyond ourselves to Someone greater. A work that is greater than us, working in us.
When we can look past our shortcomings to the beauty of the cross – embracing grace for our weaknesses instead of feigning perfection – we can find freedom.
Freedom to pursue lives that aren’t necessarily pain-free, but lives that are hope-filled.
Lives that aren’t always perfect, but full of purpose.
Lives that don’t fear failure, but find true identity in Christ, not success.
Lives that can openly experience and talk about struggling – because we aren’t perfect, but we’ve been saved by the One who is.
Today, remember: You’re loved. You’re treasured by the God who created you and rescued your soul. You are worth more than any amount of accomplishment you could ever compile. You are not perfect, but you are called holy by the manifestation of holiness Himself.
You have one life, and you can start living – right now. We have the Author of all things on our side, longing to empower us in everything we face.
And we’re not alone.
Scattered Journal Pages 
Thanks for this post, Amanda. It really is nice to have some solid encouragement, rather than pseudo-empowering statements, as you called them. I also literally couldn’t believe it when I saw the title of this post come up in my feed, because vulnerability is something I’ve been thinking a lot about recently.
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Oh wow, Jessica! That is the best to hear. 😉 I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately also (obviously, I guess 😉) and have found that true encouragement is so much more than just saying nice things. ❤ Thanks for sharing!
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So timely for me, Amanda! I was running late driving to work today and heard a radio devotional I don’t usually hear. It made the comment that, perhaps, we have become so secure in ourselves that we don’t feel the need for God. That struck me as interesting, and I thought, “Hmm, we place so much emphasis on being secure people but maybe we need to be a little insecure in order to remember to seek God.” And then your blog post pops up and continues that train of thought. Love it when God does that!
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(I tried to respond to this earlier but somehow my comment never went through. Sigh.)
That’s a really cool story! And I like that observation – we can get so caught up in our goodnesses and forget about the One that’s really sustaining us. Love that.
Ah, so great! 🙂
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“…we long to hear Someone say, “I know this seems impossible, but I will be with you through all of it.” SO much truth. And it’s so beautiful, too :). Thank you for this post, Amanda!
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That means so much to me, Savannah! Thanks for commenting! ❤
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Oh Amanda! I so needed to hear this right now! Thank you so much for posting! ❤ God bless you girl!
BTW, have you read any of Ann Voskamp's books? If you haven't you really should, I think you would like them. She just came out with a new book, called the Broken Way. The theme is very similar to the theme of this post. Your writing style in this post kinda reminds me of her. 🙂
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Oh wow, thank you, Sarah Grace! ❤
And yes, I have heard of Ann Voskamp! I read her blog all the time, and I'm in the middle of One Thousand Gifts. She's one of my biggest writing inspirations/influences honestly, and I'm really looking forward to reading The Broken Way. 🙂 Have you read it?
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Cool! I just started reading One Thousand Gifts. It is SOOOO good so far! I haven’t read The Broken Way yet, but I can’t wait to! My mom and sisters and I actually got to meet her last week! That was pretty cool! 🙂
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Oh my goodness, so jealous of them! That’s so cool!
And it is really good. Taking me a while to get through (the style is pretty rich) but I find the book really inspiring. 🙂
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