Dericka Canada Cunningham, GBW Founder
November 7, 2022
This Week's Anchor
“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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (NIV)
I love the transition between the seasons, particularly from Summer to Fall. And as Halloween whizzes by each year, I always welcome the last two months of the year and all the holiday cheer they bring *cues Mariah Carey’s Christmas album*. Nevertheless, alongside the holiday joy, this time of the year is often marked by a deep sense of exhaustion for me. By this point, we’ve made it many months through the year—carrying the load of hundreds of long days. In addition to this, those of us who work in higher education (particularly college counseling) know that November is one of the most brutal months of the entire academic year. In all transparency, I often enter the month of November bone tired. As I found myself wading through my own weariness, God, in true God form, gave me such a great reminder of the encouragement shared in 2 Corinthians chapter 12.
Our anchor scripture this week, I’m sure, is one that many of us hold close to our hearts. It proclaims that His grace is sufficient for us and that His power is made perfect in our weakness. It inspires us to delight in our weaknesses, being confident that God’s power will be revealed through our vulnerabilities. And it declares that with the presence of God in our lives when we are weak, we are made strong through this power.
As I shared, I entered this week purely exhausted. The intersections of wife-mother-therapist-friend-and-family member have weighed heavy on me these past few months, and many days I’ve felt utterly drained. I started my week tired with an overbooked schedule that gave me little room for me to breathe. It was one of those weeks where you feel like you can’t catch your breath and can barely keep up—running on fumes, and moving from one task, session, and demand to the next. Amid what is a normally busy schedule for me at this time of the academic year, I had the additional load of facilitating a seminar for our training program. One that I had little to no time or space to prepare for. As I made it to the day of the seminar, I felt my anxiety mounting. I’m a girl who likes to plan intentionally and thoroughly as a facilitator, so feeling unprepared didn’t sit well with me at all. As I felt the dread rush over me, I said a simple prayer to God, one that my mama and other Black aunties, grandmamas, and women in my life often expressed, “Lord, give me strength.”
I made it five minutes into facilitating the seminar and the sense of dread was quickly washed with calm and ease. As the seminar flowed effortlessly, I felt God’s presence. The topic had nothing (directly) to do with God, but my purpose in leading it certainly did. What initially felt like a dreadful burden became one of the best seminars I’ve ever facilitated. And it miraculously happened while I was drained, exhausted, overwhelmed, and unprepared. As I set at my desk afterward, I heard the words, “in my weakness, He is strong”. I entered this moment feeling empty and depleted but left it feeling so full and grateful.
The situation itself was a simple one. Leading a seminar isn’t the most challenging battle in my life right now, but on that day, it felt like it, and God somehow used my overcoming a basic work demand to speak to me. God showed up in a moment when I really needed Him, and in a space where I needed to be reminded of His grace, power, and strength. I don’t know if anyone reading this devotion today needs this same reminder. Whether challenging work demands, a painful journey of emotional healing, difficult relationship conflict, an arduous health process, ongoing grief and loss, isolation, trauma, anxiety fear, or just the load of carrying it all, I assure you that God sees it. He sees you and is willing to enter the depths of your weakness and help you discover a strength you never knew could exist.
Many of us were raised to believe that our weaknesses repel God. But the opposite is true. Our weaknesses are an invitation for God to show up in our lives and surprise the heck out of us and everyone else! So, as we enter another week, it is my prayer that we are each affirmed by God’s sufficient grace. Thank you, Lord, for peace, grace, and strength that surpasses all understanding. Thank you for not leaving us in our weakest moments, and for entering our vulnerabilities full of love and filling us with this same love and much more. May we wade through life’s challenges inviting your power to rest on us and making room for your purpose and provision to anchor and guide us. Amen.
Reflection
What is resonating for you about this scripture and/or this devotion?
What weaknesses and vulnerabilities do you need God’s strength for/in?
What intention(s) do you want to set to connect and/or reconnect with being grounded this week?
Related Scriptures to Ground You Through this Week
Isaiah 40: 29-31
Isaiah 43
Zephaniah 3:17
Philippians 4:13
Colossians 1:9-13
Hebrews 4:14-16
My Through-the-Week Reflection Guide
A Song of Inspiration
Quote of Love & Liberation
“I want to be in spaces where I can just be: be myself, be all I am, be all I can be,
be in my fullness and be in all my strengths, my weaknesses, and my being.”
Malebo Sephodi
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