Learning to conquer our fears—probably one of the hardest things that all of us need to learn. It’s hard work climbing a rock mountain, but once we do the feeling can be astonishingly exhilarating. 

In “The Only Way Is Through” Imke Salander, Hyrox fitness champ shares her story of how as a young girl she experienced discouragement and fear when her mother died. However, that potential weakness was a turning point for her and became her strength:

It’s all about the grind. Imke Salander doesn’t listen to the voice inside her head that says “stop”. She pushes through to become the best version of herself. 

For many of us, however, “the best version” of ourselves is never good enough. The harder part may not so much be taking control of our lives but rather to let go and surrender ourselves to the higher calling of creativity. As creative beings we—all, irrespective of color, caste, creed, sex, or class etc.—have the opportunity and privilege to respond to the boundless beauty of the Creator in whose image and likeness we live, move, and have our being. 

Consider,

Each time I typed, “Imke Salander,” the auto-correct feature in my writing software kept changing it to “Mike Slander”! Has that ever happened to you? It’s frustrating. 

It can be hard to resist compromise in character and calling in the face of temptation. The auto-correct phenomenon illustrates how we each are faced with the temptation to fit into the dominant view of whom we should be or do or think like, which may not always be in our best interest! Therefore we resist commodification and compromise by allowing the perfection of creative strength to find its way through our weakness. In this way our greatest weakness can be our greatest asset.