Vulnerability is a cross-generational, cross-cultural blessing. It knows no boundaries when it comes to people. We've all got the dis-ease of moving through life hoping no one recognizes us in our inadequate and threatened moments.
But our weaknesses show. The holes in our armor are known. The good news is that we are not destroyed by them; but will learn through God's grace to make them our fuel.
Pema Chodron puts it this way; we should never underestimate our low tolerance for discomfort. To be encouraged to stay with our vulnerability is news that we could use. Her remark exposes our innate trend to distance ourselves from others in order to protect our reputation. After all, our main goal is to finish the day looking successful.
Yet, isn't this precisely what God did in order to reach us? He did not come to earth on a limo camel with guards to escort. No, rather He showed up in the uniform of a human being; a very vulnerable one at that. Insults, rejection, beatings, and excruciating death were all his because He dared to love others.
That's what vulnerability is all about; loving others.
When we distance ourselves from anyone in order to maintain our we-are-in-control appearance, we fail to love the hundreds around who are in desperate need of attention.
Ministry isn't about sitting at the head table and trying our best to look the part. It is about celebrities who feel insecure, CEOs who can't keep up the facade, parents who are faking it, and church attenders who know how rotted we are in the center. Believe it or not, this kind of openness about who we really are lets the community flood our gates because they mistakenly had assumed they weren't good enough to be a part of God's kingdom.
None of us are good enough. No preacher. No public servant. No movie star, nor athlete, nor accomplished artist. We are all street stuffing filling up space in a specified time-frame. It is when God hits our hearts and remodels our interior that meaning comes into play. And, meaning never really arises until we can move with confidence to be publicly unconfident.
Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God (II Cor. 3:5). Self-confidence is a fake for it lasts only as long as we can control a circumstance or a person. God-confidence, though, is a different matter. He knows how to take our intimidating vulnerabilities and transform them into a whole new kind of productive energy.
For this, we should live quite enthused!
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