We all know we have a lot to offer the world—if we could just get a break, if we could just get out of our own way, if we could just be who we are deep down.

But then life happens and we happen, then more of life and more of us.

Things get complicated. We end up disappointed and discouraged, maybe even desperate.

You might be thinking, Yeah, that’s true for me, but the best of the best don’t struggle like this. People at the top of their game. The superstars! They don’t seem to struggle much.

That. That thought is such a lie.

The Myth of Superstardom

Let me tell you about some superstars.

Philip Seymour Hoffman was at the top of his game, considered by many the finest actor of his generation. He won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his work in Capote. Then tragically, in early 2014, he died of a heroin addiction.

Vincent Van Gogh has been widely heralded as the father of modern art. He struggled with mental illness much of his life and at age 37 died of what most believe was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Robin Williams. Sylvia Plath. Kurt Cobain.

Sometimes being at the top of your game just means you have further to fall.

I have only sympathy and sadness and reverence for the Hoffmans and Van Goghs of the world. I’m deeply grateful for their work. I’m also sad about how life treated them and how they struggled so mightily with it—some to the point of death. It’s just tragic and sad and awful. They don’t deserve our judgment, they deserve our reverence. We need to hold their stories sacred.

My Weakness

This isn’t theoretical for me. One thing I have learned about myself, really since graduating from college, is that I have addictive tendencies. Whether it’s food or Facebook, I have a tendency to go overboard. I have trouble stopping.

I remember joking with a friend: “Sometimes I think if I could just avoid making a complete wreck of my life, I’d be thrilled.” But it wasn’t really a joke. It’s the kind of line that leaks out from someone who knows his self-destructive tendencies.

This weakness could destroy me if I let it. If I chose to ignore it, to not take it seriously, to push it aside and go my merry addictive way, it would just be a matter of time before it wreaked major havoc in my life.

But what if I sat with it? What if I tried to learn something about where it comes from? And what if I tried to recover, to do what I need to do to experience healing?

Stories of Redemption

Let me tell you some other stories.

Donald Miller grew up without a dad. Instead of letting this defeat him, he started a mentoring program that now serves many children who otherwise would have no mentor. He wrote a book about his struggle, and now he’s a New York Times bestselling author.

Anne Lamott tells the story of her alcoholism in her book Traveling Mercies. She was strung out and probably just a few binges away from death when she stumbled into a church of people who loved on her. She got help and is now an inspiration to many.

Writer O. Henry began his writing career in earnest when he was in prison for embezzlement and then wrote a story a week after being released from prison.

Going back a ways, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield after his father was sentenced to debtor’s prison and eleven-year-old Charles was forced to work ten-hour days at a shoe-blacking factory.

My point is that our weaknesses can help us produce our best work. They do not have to cripple or defeat us. <Tweet that!>

In my own experience, my weakness has led me to embrace the redemptive power of creativity. Nothing has helped me more on this journey than to think about and build into my life rhythms of art. I wrote Do Your Art: A Manifesto on Rejecting Apathy to Bring Your Best to the World for myself as much as anybody.

I have a long way to go, but my life and my service to others is so much better for having made the choice to walk this path.

Walk Your Path

Everyone has a weakness, a wound, some issue they’re dealing with. It could be a mental disorder (like Van Gogh) or an addiction (like Seymour Hoffman). It could be a disability of some kind. It could be trauma from your past. A phobia. It could be depression or bipolar disorder or any number of other conditions that, sadly, seem to be part of the human condition. It could be a deep regret you have.

When we ignore these weaknesses, when we push them to the side and refuse to deal with them, they do damage to our lives. They sabotage.

But if we learn to look at them, if we learn to talk about them with others, if we learn to sit with them long enough to understand their deeper messages, these weaknesses can be our allies. They can lead us to our unique genius.

Our struggles, our weaknesses, our wounds—they occur in places of deep potential within and around us. They can destroy us, and maybe they will. But if we can face them, with help from others, they can lead us to our art.

Our weaknesses can guide us to the things we are called to give the world. They can lead us to do our best work yet. <Tweet that!>

Question: What’s one thing you can do this week to walk your path? You can leave a comment by clicking here.