strength

Soundgarden's song Burden in my Hand begins, 'Follow me into the desert, as thirsty as you are.' 

It's about an act of will. It's the sort of thing where, at the time, you feel weak and needy - not strong at all - but you go ahead anyway and do something and then you realize your strength. You don't realize it because you saw or see yourself as strong - you realize it because you are being strong.

That's the irony: you're strongest when you don't feel strong, or as the apostle Paul put it: "...when I am weak, then I am strong..." (2 Corinthians 12:10)