Vulnerability

Years ago in Houston, Texas, a house caught on fire. As bystanders were watching the firemen fight the fire, suddenly a woman ran through the crowd and into the burning house. In seconds the house collapsed, and she was burned to death. The next day the headlines read: “Woman Commits Suicide.” Later the newspaper was forced to print an apology. Why? Investigators found an infant buried in the debris. It was the woman’s baby. She was trying to save her baby. It wasn’t suicide. It was a wonderful act of sacrifice. Everything is not always as it appears. Maybe you are thinking, “Well I could have told you that the woman was running inside to save her child. How could the newspaper jump to such a wrong conclusion?” Alright but be careful, a wrong conclusion seen in others can sometimes be missed in our own lives. For example, what conclusions do you draw about your vulnerabilities? A good friend, Dave Day sent me something written by Rick Warren, “Your vulnerability is not a weakness.” Is that the way you think about the vulnerability in your life? How many of us treat our vulnerabilities as if they were proof of our failures? Often our vulnerabilities manifest themselves as bad habits and broken relationships. We then let our vulnerabilities rob us of any desire to be better. What if we applied the lesson learned when the newspaper drew the wrong conclusion about the woman who died in the fire? What if we assign a different meaning to our vulnerabilities? In 2Cor. 12:9,10 we read, “… I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” What a great passage! But it requires us to rethink what we think we know about what happens when we are vulnerable. Instead of being proof of our failure, vulnerability could become part of our growth. This is how you raise the bar on your discipleship.