vulnerable

Own our story…share our weakness

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“To share your weakness is to make yourself vulnerable: to make yourself vulnerable is to show your strength“ – Chriss Jami

Being vulnerable is not about always showing all of our glamour. It is about showing the parts of us that we keep locked up that are not so glamorous. I think we feel that if we show the parts of us that we keep locked up, we risk being judged and even rejected. We don’t think anybody else could understand us, so we stay behind our walls. We see vulnerability as a sign of weakness but it actually takes so much strength to show weakness.

” What happens when people open their hearts?…They get better.”
– Haruki Murakami

God asks us to pour our hearts out to him. When we do this he will expose our hearts, not to punish us but to heal us. True joy, comes from sacrificing ourselves for others, this requires vulnerability. We need to empty ourselves out to others while trusting God will fill us back up. We need to stop seeing others as our “competition” but more as our brothers and sisters of God who have the same needs and fears as we do. Don’t forget, God allowed Jesus to die on the cross for us. If he didn’t scorn the shame of the cross then we should not be ashamed of being vulnerable. Humility and vulnerability are so very hard to let show, but so necessary to have true JOY!

“What makes you vulnerable makes you beautiful” – Brene Brown

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We are vulnerable on all sides, in and out, up and down, past, present, and future. We fear vulnerability. It takes a great deal of living to discover that, actually, vulnerability comes to us more as friend than as enemy. Vulnerability may be the greatest strength we have. Vulnerability bonds us to one another and makes us a community in league with life. Because we need one another, we live looking for good in others, without which we ourselves can not survive, will not grow, can not become what we ourselves have the potential to be. [Change in our lives and in our communities cannot happen without this]. Vulnerability is the gift given to us to enable us to embed ourselves in the universe. We are born dependent and spend the rest of our lives coming to wholeness. It is a delicate and dangerous process, requiring and untold amount of support and an amazing degree of forgiveness as we stumble and grope our way from one new part of life to another. Vulnerability, in fact, is the one hallmark of life which, try as we might, we can not cure. Vulnerability, therefore is clearly part of the spiritual process, clearly part of the human endeavor. -Joan Chittister

” I am getting by FINE on my own”

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I know I kind of talked about this on my “treat others the way you want to be treated” entry, but I decided to add a few more thoughts.

Since childhood, I was under this false pretense that I had to be strong. This followed me into young adulthood. Especially, during times where I knew I was being put under a microscope and I felt people were expecting me to fail. I felt that if I showed anything but strength, I would be looked at as weak or unable to handle my circumstances. I am so glad that God showed me that life is not supposed to be lived this way. He created us to love and confide in each other.

“Being vulnerable”

Sometimes always being “strong”, keeps us from the feelings we need to experience.

 Way too often, we build walls around ourselves in the midst of sadness, pain or hard times because we are too proud to ask for help. We hold a smile that says ” I am getting by fine on my own”.  When in fact, we are not.

 When you confide in another person, not only does it help you but you also bless the other person! You give them the opportunity to show their friendship, loyalty, and love for you by being there and being a true friend.

 By putting up walls we are stopping the flow of love between us and others.. the love that can give us the strength we need. Embrace the people who are reaching out to you.

 If someone you trust wants to hug you while you cry, let them

 If someone you trust wants to lend a listening ear, let them

 If someone you trust asks you how you are doing, answer with honesty, even if it means admitting that You are “not great” at the moment. Don’t shut people out or they may eventually walk away.
God asks us to be this vulnerable all the time – with Him and with others – if we want true joy. 
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