Love the contrasting story lines in Thor: Ragnarok between the Hulk and Thor.
Thor gets stuck on a random planet fighting to get back to his home and finds he is in the same arena with Hulk. He is able to get Hulk to turn back into Bruce Banner, and they discuss all the time that has passed with him stuck as the Hulk. But even though Bruce has been battling and trying to avoid becoming the Hulk for years, he hasn’t ever gotten it. He is going on and on about how he has multiple PhDs, which is great. But what is so sad is that Banner still won’t admit his true strength is his ability to become Hulk. What he considers his biggest weakness is actually his biggest strength.
What in your life feels like a weakness but actually makes you better? What has tripped you up, made you have different goals, or made you change the way you live, but honestly makes you a better person because of it?
Similarly, Thor is struggling with his true strength as well. But on the contrast, Thor is suffering from the loss of a strength. He knows his strength is his hammer and feels incapable without it. His sister destroys Mjolinir and when he has to fight her, he is lost, insisting that he cannot win without it. I love the scene with his father, where he asks, “Are you Thor, god of Hammers?” His father helps remind him that the hammer was made for him, not the other way around. He has put so much stock on his hammer that he cannot see anything else that he brings to the table. His real strength is that he is the god of thunder, and if he can use that, he can fight any battle he comes against.
You were made for more than just what you see as your current strength. Whether that’s something obvious to you that you can’t live without, or something that sometimes feels like a weakness, you have more to offer than you realize. I pray that your friends and even being in different situations at work helps stretch you so you can see not only what you have now, but also what can be used in unique ways in the future.