Episode 59: Olive Us Made Strong
An interview with Jennie Fuentes
Jennie shares her in-process story of embracing weakness and surrendering to a God who is strong.
The Seeds
Name: Jennie Fuentes
Where do you call home: San Francisco, CA
Relationship Status: Married
Season of Work: Relationship Coach + Entrepreneur - in the process of launching a coffee shop
Hobbies: Writing poetry, cooking/discovering new recipes, reading books, and journaling
Jesus Journey: I gave my life to Jesus at a very young age. Sunday school. By the age of 13, I was baptized by water and also received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I have loved Jesus at a very young age. I spent “quiet time” without realizing that was the word with Jesus since I was young and He constantly would (and still) speak to me through dreams. Giving up my faith has never been a nonnegotiable, but I can definitely tell you that the older I got the more I got to discover who Jesus is. From provider, sustainer, healer, father, friend, counselor, teacher, leader, comforter and more.
The Branches
How would you describe weakness?
For me, weakness is that Holy moment when you finally surrender and acknowledge that you can no longer do this (meaning life, a season you may find yourself in, a job, a role on your own and weakness at that moment becomes not just a feeling but a tool that God uses to help us get to know Him better.
When we try to force agenda or strive to do what we want to do, there tends to be a sense of spiritual discomfort many times associated with weakness; but when we are living a life of worship and obedience and following God’s will for our lives there is a sense of ease - that doesn’t mean it won’t be easy but it feels “right.”
How the world views weakness is very different from how the Kingdon of God sees weakness. Talk to us about some of the differences you’ve discovered while reading scripture.
The world tends to view weakness as a failure, but the Bible is filled with so many stories of both men and women who in their moments of “weakness”’ God shows up and moves in their lives by giving Himself to them to demonstrate His love, grace, compassion, forgiveness, and strength. One of my favorite scriptures is found in Zechariah 4:6. Zerubbabel, (governor of Judah) is entrusted to lay the foundation of the temple (which that moment would complete the rebuilding of the temple) and despite his doubts, discouragement, and frustration, the Lord speaks through Zachariah to tell Zerubbabel, “This is the word the Lord gave to Zerubbabel: “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit.”
God speaks and reminds Zerubbabel (and the reader) that he will fulfill what He called Zerubbabel to complete, but this is not by his strength, but by the power and strength that can only come from God.
God’s work to rebuild “my life” or build/create/bring to life something new cannot be accomplished by human strength but through the power of the Holy Spirit.
I have learned that my weakness is an opportunity for God to show up. It’s an invitation for the Holy Spirit to move. God will never force himself where he is not invited to (He can, but he has given us free will) and it’s that free will we have to be careful at times from getting in the way of our vulnerability and surrender journey. I cannot deny that I am human and experience discouragement, discomfort, disappointment, and even sadness, but it is then that I feel God fully show up in my life through scripture, church messages, friends, family, my dreams, and through prayer. He shows up with encouragement, grace, peace, comfort, compassion, provision, and strength. Simply because I yielded my own will.
I want to be like Moses who prayed and asked God to let him (Moses) into His (God’s) plans for his people, to experience his glory, and to see God face to face (communion/intimacy). Like Moses, I want His presence more than anything. Why? Because God promises that in His presence I will find rest (Exodus 33:14). I would rather experience rest than constantly be hustling, suffering, and/or struggling, and to obtain rest and be in his presence, I will be required to constantly die to self, to surrender and admit that I am indeed weak and need Christ at all times.
How has admitting to “weakness” led to surrender to God? What has “surrender” practically looked like in your life?
I will admit I am stubborn when it comes to admitting weakness. Culturally, being the firstborn from my father’s marriage, and being Latina, weakness is something you don’t admit nor you are “allowed” to accept. You fight, hustle, grind. You do whatever you can that is in your strength and best interest to make sure you don’t fail at anything. Weakness was constantly associated with shame growing up.
The closer I got to Jesus the more I realized that it was impossible to not be weak. God used my first years of marriage to make me realize and understand that I am indeed human (hahaha) not superwoman and that I was created to live a life full of surrender. This meant being open to receiving help. This meant surrendering my dreams and passions. When my husband and I were journeying through our infertility journey, it meant trusting Jesus with that dream I once had of being a mom and Him healing my heart.
It meant that after 15 years of teaching, I would have an “existential crisis” that would lead me to trust God as a 39-year-old woman to rewrite my story!
Again, I am reminded that God wants to guide me, instruct my life, and teach me all that He has in plan for me, but He can only do so if I allow Him to. Thankfully we don’t have to be perfect to hear God’s guidance but it does require humility. Surrender requires you and I to have a humble attitude. In his kindness, he will still show us and reach out, but I have had to either accept the fact that I do my will and continue to struggle or surrender and allow God’s comfort, gentle guidance, and healing to lead me. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Cor. 3:17).
What have you learned about God in admitting weakness and surrendering?
I have learned that He is kind. He is constantly waiting for us with open arms to come and surrender. He wants to carry our burdens for us. I love Matthew 11:28-30 where he invites us to come to Him and promises to give us rest.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
He is a gentle God. One who is lowly, kind, approachable, and understands exactly what it is that we are feeling in times of uncertainty, crisis, weakness, failure, and fear. There is nothing better than to have God at your side, willing to listen, help, redirect, guide, and support you in such a way that your weakness becomes a blessing in disguise.
I also want to add that Jesus understands weakness. He is a perfect God, and yet when He came to save the world when the time came to be crushed and crucified, He went to pray and asked His Heavenly Father if there was another way to do this. He knew he had to surrender and follow through with His father’s will.
There will be moments when surrendering our loved ones, desires, dreams, goals, aspirations, and our own lives will be less than complicated, but there will be moments when we will be asked to surrender anything that is listed above and/or more that will require us to be near the Father’s heart to understand and accept that His will is better than ours.
Remember, God will never ask you to do something unloving or unfaithful, all the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful (Psalm 25:10).
So if we know God’s power is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor 12:9) then why do you think we STILL struggle as followers of Jesus confessing our weakness and surrendering our weakness to God?
I believe it is in our human nature to fight against weakness. Pride and our ego get in the way of admitting that we are wrong, or made a mistake, or that something failed, despite our best efforts.
In addition, I must dare to say that we love to be praised and prefer to be right with people many times instead of being right with God. We live in a culture where we are obsessed with being seen, heard, and validated. At some point, this obsession gets in the way of our striving for growth. It becomes an emotional crutch, and we have to accept that not everyone will understand us, but Christ will. This is why it’s important to go to Him and surrender to him.
I also believe that we live in a world where at a very young age you are trained to hustle, and succeed and where making mistakes is counterculture.
We want to win at life and society is constantly bombarding us with success stories, and hardly ever the vulnerable ones.
On the other hand, we also live in a world where we tend to pathologize normal life struggles. Not every challenge is trauma, not every difficult situation is due to trauma or toxicity. Life is hard sometimes and when we pathologize normal struggles we are robbing ourselves of the ability to invite God to help us navigate them.
And don’t even get me started that all of these are distractions the enemy has used to keep us from genuinely approaching Jesus with our vulnerability.
Does surrendering to God mean we don’t “act” and are entirely hands-off? Does surrender mean we give up?
You cannot surrender without acting. The point of surrender is to act on it. You have to choose to surrender. Many times it is verbally confessing to Jesus that you need him and that you can no longer do it on your own. Many times it requires faith (in action). It requires sometimes to physically cease and give up a position, a call, a job, etc.
Then there is the work you have to do after surrendering. That can mean many other things like healing, discovery, recovery, rebuilding, and starting all over, but never does it mean you are stagnant and don’t do anything about it. It’s a partnership with God. He wants you as invested and involved in your surrendering and healing journey.
Luke 18:1- 8 is the parable of the persistent widow. What role has persistent prayer played in your life when you’ve taken your areas of weakness, maybe even disappointments, to God?
Gosh, If there is one thing I have learned, it is that in moments when I didn’t have the strength to pray, I had to ask others in my inner circle to pray for me. But there hasn’t been a battle I have won or a season of weakness I have been able to surrender without being in constant prayer. I had to ask God, cry out to God, and even, like Job, fight with God. Even like this persistent widow, I have had to keep showing up in prayer to yield my own will for His.
At the beginning of February 2025, you created an IG reel confessing many things. What are some of the things you mentioned, and what was the heart behind sharing with the world?
Honestly, I just felt the need to be vulnerable and invite others to see that our world is so imperfect and that despite my accolades and accomplishments, I am still human, and my life has had many bumps, tears, and pain. I wanted to remind others and myself that we are not alone and that change, surrender, and pain are part of our humanity.
In this post, I talk about not being afraid to admit that even though I am 39, there are things/goals (either placed by me, society, or family) that I have not accomplished and probably never will. Some examples include:
owning a home
Having children
A successful career (let’s talk about what a successful career even means, right?)
And also in admitting that I often feel behind, I am just learning to prioritize my health and have had multiple mental and emotional breakdowns.
It was scary to share at first, it was uncomfortable, but I knew that I needed to confess and share it. The moment I did, walls came crashing down, and I felt free. I needed to do this first and foremost for myself and I also felt a tug to invite others to share or even join me in my vulnerability.
You ended the reel by saying, “Success doesn’t look how I thought it would. And maybe that’s okay.” It sounds like your definition of “success” has changed over time. If that’s right…how did you get to this point? What changed?
I was raised with the American Dream. As a child of immigrants, success was defined and taught to me as having a house, kids, and a successful career. Despite growing up in the church and attending Christian schools, there was still this belief that one had to be successful through careers, wealth, and education. But as I have journeyed and walked with Jesus, my definition of success has shifted to being in the will of my God in the season I find myself in. Success is doing my Heavenly Father’s will and not mine. It’s surrendering my agenda and plans for the ones he has for me. Is admitting that I need Jesus daily and that without him I am nothing. This world and everything is meaningless (vapor, smoke) as the writer in Ecclesiastes writes 38 times. One day we can have something, another day it can be gone in an instant.
Jesus said, “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:25). My goal in life is to grasp the divine, the eternal. His Kingdom come and will be done in my life as it is in Heaven. This is how I now view success.
Not intellect, not houses, not accolades and achievements or recognition but faith in trusting Jesus with my life.
We must admit we need Christ to “grow up” in Christ. This means we have to admit we are weak. What’s at stake for the five women attending Olive Us Restored Retreat #1 if they come in STRONG & CLOSED-OFF rather than soft, honest, and surrendered?
I am a firm believer that if you are choosing to attend the retreat or are invited to attend, God wants to meet you where you are. In your messy, ugly, hard, broken season. So come with an open heart. You won’t regret opening up your heart to Jesus. You lose being healed, met, and restored. Growth requires friction, don’t only step into environments that cater to your emotions but step into the hard places that will require you to face yourself, your life, doubts, and insecurities in a community where others are on the same journey. You are not alone.
You’re a leader in our SF community. How important is it for leaders to model WEAKNESS and create safe spaces?
It is time for the church to rise up and not be shy from speaking about vulnerability and what society may define as “hard” conversations. I believe part of experiencing revival in our churches and communities comes from healing and we can only begin to heal what we speak into. May we approach Jesus with Clean hands and pure hearts (Psalm 24:4-6):
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to what is false
and does not swear deceitfully.
He will receive blessing from the Lord
and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek the face of the God of Jacob.
Olive Us was created for women to share their in-process stories and be reminded they’re connected through Christ and not alone. Why is this important?
There is nothing more beautiful than walking in community with your sisters in Christ. We need to champion, empower, and support each other. We are in the same team and by joining together we can create spaces of harmony, healing, respect, and restoration.
Proverbs and Ecclesiastes both speak about the power of doing things with at least one other person, and scripture is filled with testimonies of men and women doing powerful things due to their unity. When we come together, we create space for God to pour out His spirit in such a wonderful way. There are things God can only show you in your intimate times with him and there are revelations and experiences that require community.
We were not created to do life alone.
The Olive Tree
Finish these statements:
God is…willing and able.
Being weak with God is … not as scary as you think.
‘Olive Us’ are better when…we are for each other and empower women.