Vulnerability

Dr. Brene’ Brown studied the essence of human relations from the perspective of a social worker.  She discovered, much to her chagrin, that at the heart of relationships in vulnerability.  Her research taught her that relationally successful people, labeled “wholehearted” people, have the common trait of being vulnerable to others in their relationship.

The world we live in teaches us that vulnerability is something to be avoided.  We are taught to protect ourselves, don’t take risks, and avoid looking weak.  These lessons are learned from infancy, and we learn them well.  We avoid the sense of vulnerability like it’s the plague.

The problem is that deep relationships depend upon two people making themselves vulnerable to each other.  This could explain much.  Why don’t marriages last?  It could be that our relationships are stunted because of our culturally learned unwillingness to allow ourselves to be sufficiently vulnerable with one another.

Further, this vulnerability issue is a problem for us Christians.  Jesus calls us to voluntarily take on the posture of vulnerability.

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-25 NIV)

Denying ourselves, carrying crosses, and losing our lives are images replete with a sense of vulnerability.  Thereby, they are things, acculturated as we are, to be avoided. 

Christ’s command to lose our lives is a command that He was willing to follow Himself.  Jesus could have come as a king commanding thousands of troops.  Jesus could have demanded the worship of the world.  Instead, Jesus showed us the way.  He showed us about vulnerability.  Jesus laid down his life.

Jesus commands us to love one another.  C.S. Lewis writes, “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken.”  Jesus commands us to be vulnerable in our relationships with people.

Please join me in striving to live according to Christ’s command to live counter culturally, to live vulnerably.

In Christ,
Lon Alderman
@leaderlifter
www.AcornMinistries.com

Oswald Chambers on Siege

I read from Oswald Chambers, "My Utmost for His Highest", almost every day. I couldn't help but notice the "siege" theme in what I read this morning. Instead of relating it to you, I've decided to simply share it. Surrender!

Fellowship in the Gospel

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. . . fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ . . . —1 Thessalonians 3:2

After sanctification, it is difficult to state what your purpose in life is, because God has moved you into His purpose through the Holy Spirit. He is using you now for His purposes throughout the world as He used His Son for the purpose of our salvation. If you seek great things for yourself, thinking, "God has called me for this and for that," you barricade God from using you. As long as you maintain your own personal interests and ambitions, you cannot be completely aligned or identified with God’s interests. This can only be accomplished by giving up all of your personal plans once and for all, and by allowing God to take you directly into His purpose for the world. Your understanding of your ways must also be surrendered, because they are now the ways of the Lord.

I must learn that the purpose of my life belongs to God, not me. God is using me from His great personal perspective, and all He asks of me is that I trust Him. I should never say, "Lord, this causes me such heartache." To talk that way makes me a stumbling block. When I stop telling God what I want, He can freely work His will in me without any hindrance. He can crush me, exalt me, or do anything else He chooses. He simply asks me to have absolute faith in Him and His goodness. Self-pity is of the devil, and if I wallow in it I cannot be used by God for His purpose in the world. Doing this creates for me my own cozy "world within the world," and God will not be allowed to move me from it because of my fear of being "frost-bitten."

Breaking the Siege, by Lon Alderman

Pheaney commented on yesterday's post:
Let's say hypothetically we see the self-siege happening to our church. How do we change it?

First, if I had the answer to this question, I would be a VERY popular guy! The problem is complicated and somewhat peculiar to the individual church; however, I believe that there is a general principle that may apply in every case. It is the application of the principle that would take on unique characteristics.

Mark 8:34-35
Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.

Letting go or surrendering our life to Christ is the way that we gain real life, eternal life. Is it possible that for a church to "save [its] life" it must "lose" or surrender its "life"? In other words, what if the church would put its very "life" on the line; risk every gift?

I know of a church that determined to save the money that had been given them. They said someday a rainy day will come and then we'll need this money to survive, so they "buried it". In the current year those "safe investments" lost over $250,000! Think of the ministry that could have been "risked". Think of the money that could have been "thrown away" on feeding or clothing the poor.

The "gifts" a church may possess might not always be money. However, if the church is still open then I'm confident there are gifts there. Every church needs to take those gifts and completely surrender them to Jesus and see how He directs. I'm confident that the directions in which Jesus guides us to invest our gifts will be contrary to the ways, or patterns, of the world (Romans 12:2)!

William Barclay
If a man has a talent and exercises it, he is progressively able to do more with it. But, if he has a talent and fails to exercise it, he will inevitably lose it. If we have some proficiency at a game or an art, if we have some gift for doing something, the more we exercise that proficiency and that gift, the harder the work and the bigger the task we will be able to tackle. Whereas, if we fail to use it, we lose it. That is equally true of playing golf or playing the piano, or singing songs or writing sermons, of carving wood or thinking out ideas. It is the lesson of life that the only way to keep a gift is to use it in the service of God and in the service of our fellow-men.

Break the siege!
Lon