Day 246: Love's Simple Secret: "Lord, Teach Me To Be Vulnerable"
Read: Psalm 41:4 - 13
Today, I invite you to reflect with me on how human vulnerability might
be a starting place for thinking about how we can live meaning-filled,
compassionate lives. Now all forms of loving require greater or lesser
degrees of personal vulnerability. Anyone who determines to be a lover
needs to understand that there is a price tag involved for them. It'll
cost you much in terms of your time, your energy, your resources, your
pride, and open you up to possibly being wounded, misunderstood, abused
and even rejected. Simply living, brings us again and again to a place
of vulnerability. Either we go through suffering or go through love. None of us can avoid being wounded in this life.
If we had a choice of all the places to go in this life of ours, the
last place might just be the land of vulnerability. It is a remarkably
difficult land to traverse. There are tons of places that will
represent to us a grave threat to life, liberty and the pursuit of love
and happiness. Every forward step we are ever likely to take becomes
less and less trustworthy than the other. Like going into battle and
crossing a strange field, which one step will be the last we will ever
remember? King David was a man acquainted with warfare - from the
battlefield governed by the sword to the battlefield located in the deepest recesses of our heart. We know David didn't always win. Neither will we.
As he pleads to God for the health of his soul; 'As for me, I said, “O Lord, be gracious to me; Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.” (4) what do we learn? The first I guess would be that willingly walking into that place called vulnerability requires that we get absolutely prayerful and absolutely honest with ourselves about ourselves. No journey into this land can begin any other way. Something has been placed upon our souls that is serving to convict us of something. Where there is conviction there needs to be something done about it. But what? Ignore it, it might go away or it might not. I guess that this is where it ends for most people. But this is not where it ends for God.
But as our heart aches with David in his brokenness, in his
vulnerability before man and God, we also learn that over time we must
eventually begin to understand our own personal vulnerabilities - those
times when we are subject to the attacks of the enemy within and
without. Places. Times. Conditions. When we are weak in the soul, we
truly do leave our lives open and exposed. Perfect love casts out fear
but when it is busy casting out fear into the void, there is that old
void from which fear originally came from that remains to be filled back
up. What do we do about that? Where is the filling station? For me it comes from Loving God, Family, Bible Study, Loving You time.
Let Us Pray: Lord Jesus Christ, Lord of Love, In awe and in wonder, we gather around your cross, we gather around to look upon the stark vision of your
brokenness. With awe and wonder and utmost humility we struggle to
receive your brokenness. And in return we offer to you, and to each
other, our struggle to accept our brokenness in return. As we struggle
to touch your wounds, and now struggle to let you touch ours, please
open our hearts to the vulnerability of your love, and the saving power
of your brokenness. Help us to embrace our own vulnerability, our own
brokenness, so that the fruit of your love may become the fruit of our
lives: a feast for our family, our community and for your kingdom on
earth as it most assuredly is in heaven above.
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Read: Psalm 41:4 - 13
Today, I invite you to reflect with me on how human vulnerability might be a starting place for thinking about how we can live meaning-filled, compassionate lives. Now all forms of loving require greater or lesser degrees of personal vulnerability. Anyone who determines to be a lover needs to understand that there is a price tag involved for them. It'll cost you much in terms of your time, your energy, your resources, your pride, and open you up to possibly being wounded, misunderstood, abused and even rejected. Simply living, brings us again and again to a place of vulnerability. Either we go through suffering or go through love. None of us can avoid being wounded in this life.
If we had a choice of all the places to go in this life of ours, the last place might just be the land of vulnerability. It is a remarkably difficult land to traverse. There are tons of places that will represent to us a grave threat to life, liberty and the pursuit of love and happiness. Every forward step we are ever likely to take becomes less and less trustworthy than the other. Like going into battle and crossing a strange field, which one step will be the last we will ever remember? King David was a man acquainted with warfare - from the battlefield governed by the sword to the battlefield located in the deepest recesses of our heart. We know David didn't always win. Neither will we.
As he pleads to God for the health of his soul; 'As for me, I said, “O Lord, be gracious to me; Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.” (4) what do we learn? The first I guess would be that willingly walking into that place called vulnerability requires that we get absolutely prayerful and absolutely honest with ourselves about ourselves. No journey into this land can begin any other way. Something has been placed upon our souls that is serving to convict us of something. Where there is conviction there needs to be something done about it. But what? Ignore it, it might go away or it might not. I guess that this is where it ends for most people. But this is not where it ends for God.
But as our heart aches with David in his brokenness, in his vulnerability before man and God, we also learn that over time we must eventually begin to understand our own personal vulnerabilities - those times when we are subject to the attacks of the enemy within and without. Places. Times. Conditions. When we are weak in the soul, we truly do leave our lives open and exposed. Perfect love casts out fear but when it is busy casting out fear into the void, there is that old void from which fear originally came from that remains to be filled back up. What do we do about that? Where is the filling station? For me it comes from Loving God, Family, Bible Study, Loving You time.
Let Us Pray: Lord Jesus Christ, Lord of Love, In awe and in wonder, we gather around your cross, we gather around to look upon the stark vision of your brokenness. With awe and wonder and utmost humility we struggle to receive your brokenness. And in return we offer to you, and to each other, our struggle to accept our brokenness in return. As we struggle to touch your wounds, and now struggle to let you touch ours, please open our hearts to the vulnerability of your love, and the saving power of your brokenness. Help us to embrace our own vulnerability, our own brokenness, so that the fruit of your love may become the fruit of our lives: a feast for our family, our community and for your kingdom on earth as it most assuredly is in heaven above.
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