"you never know how God might use your weakness to show someone else just how powerful His grace really is"
- Andi
- 8 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Kaleb reflects on his time on France 🇫🇷
Since returning from my volunteering trip to France working at Spring Harvest, I’ve found myself reflecting on my time there and also lot on 2 Corinthians 12:7–10, where Paul talks about boasting in his weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon him. That passage has taken on a much deeper meaning for me through everything I experienced during my time away.
For a long time, I saw my anxiety as something I needed God to take away. I prayed for an immediate rescue and often wondered why He would allow me to struggle with it. But through this experience, I began to understand my “thorn” differently. Maybe God isn’t always asking me to wait for the struggle to disappear. Maybe He is asking me to trust Him in the middle of it, so that His strength can be seen through my weakness.
It reminded me of the Lord’s Prayer and the words, “Give us this day our daily bread.” I realised that I need to depend on God in the same way—not just once, but every day. I needed to step out in faith, stop allowing anxiety to dictate what I could and couldn’t do, and surrender it to God each day, trusting Him to provide the strength and courage I needed for that moment.
That became a very real challenge when I travelled to France and spent three weeks living alongside around 50 other people. For me, that was a huge step outside my comfort zone. There were plenty of moments when the mental battle with anxiety felt overwhelming. But day after day, Christ carried me through it. Looking back now, I can honestly say that I returned home stronger, more confident, and more faithful than when I left.
Before this trip, I never imagined myself standing up and speaking in front of people—especially not in front of the church. Whenever I tried to rely on my own strength, I found myself struggling. But the more I surrendered my anxiety to God and allowed myself to be vulnerable, the more I experienced His strength working through me.
One of the biggest things I learned was the power of simply sharing my struggles. When I first started opening up about my anxiety, I was afraid that people might judge me or see me differently. Instead, people prayed for me, encouraged me, and reminded me that I didn’t have to face those battles alone.
What impacted me even more was seeing how God could use my own struggles to help someone else. During our Converge event, where we brought together our Pulse (13–15) and Outbreak (16–18) youth groups, a student came to me asking for prayer. He shared that he struggled with social anxiety and found it difficult to read the Bible. In that moment, I realised that the battles I had wished away could actually be something God could use to encourage and guide someone else.
Coming back from this mission trip, I’m more convinced than ever that God can bring something good out of the things we struggle with when we place them in His hands. So if you’re carrying your own “thorn,” I want to encourage you not to hide it. Talk about it. Pray about it. Let people support you. Most importantly, surrender it to God and allow Him to work through it.
You never know who might need to hear your testimony, and you never know how God might use your weakness to show someone else just how powerful His grace really is.
That experience reminded me that God can take even the things we see as weaknesses and use them for His glory when we surrender them to Him. My anxiety hasn’t suddenly disappeared, but I now see it differently. Instead of only asking God to remove it, I’m learning to ask Him to use it—to show His strength through my weakness and to help me trust Him one day at a time.
Below are a few other photos of things Kaleb got up to while away.
Comments