Heyyyy, second blog of the day, let’s gooooo!
Thought I would share another blog, a little bit more of a serious blog, but still a good one I think you all need to read.
Something that has been on my heart lately is the topic of vulnerability. What is it? What does it look like? Vulnerability is something that I’ve known I needed to work on for a while, but recognizing it and actually being vulnerable are two very different things.
Vulnerability is inviting people in to see the deepest, most real and raw parts of you; seeing you when maybe you don’t have everything together, when your emotions are at their realest point. Instead of real vulnerability, selective vulnerability is often substituted, choosing to be “vulnerable” with things you’ve either already gone through and have dealt with instead of while you’re going through it, or choosing to give some of the story but not all of the deepest parts, etc.
Why is vulnerability such a struggle for people? Because we live in a broken world and people get hurt. When you are truly vulnerable with someone, you want them to stick around forever, never leave, never betray your trust. Vulnerability comes with trust and when that trust is broken, walls are often built to protect yourself. As humans, our first instinct in a tough situation where we are hurt to to provide for ourselves, protect yourself and not allow ourselves to be hurt like that again.
Well, let me tell you: when we do that, we are not only blocking out the pain and potential for hurt, we’re also blocking out the ability to receive and give true love.
Yeah, I know. Ouch.
But take Jesus for example. This dude made friends with broken people, people who didn’t know how to truly love. He made friends with Judas who HE KNEW WAS GOING TO BETRAY HIM! He made friends with Simon Peter WHO HE KNEW WAS GOING TO DENY HIM! Like, umm what, Jesus? If we tried explaining our logic to Him, He’d laugh and be like “what the heck? that’s not at all what you’re supposed to do!” Jesus was vulnerable, He let His disciples in on what He was feeling, He cried with them, He laughed with them, He didn’t numb to the emotions that may make it harder for Him to say goodbye when His time came. No, He gave His whole heart to everyone He came into contact with because that’s what true love is.
Now ask yourself this: how can you love like Jesus if you can’t even be vulnerable enough to receive the love the Lord wants to give you?
It’s hard, I know, to release and tear down the walls built up trying to protect yourself. It’s not an easy thing to do to allow yourself the potential of being hurt by others. But when we are hurt, when we are betrayed or caused pain because we let someone in and they didn’t guard our hearts well, that gives the Father the opportunity to step in to comfort and love us, to share how He can love and protect our hearts because He is perfect and would never hurt or betray us.
So I challenge you, as hard and as uncomfortable as it may be, ask God what walls you have built up and when you built up those walls. Ask Him what lies you’ve been believing that could’ve allowed yourself to build up those walls, then ask Him what truth He wants to replace those lies with. Ask Him how He plans to protect your heart as you begin to let your walls down. Do it. You won’t regret it.
Thank you for reading, you guys! I miss you all! If you want to share what God is doing in your life or if you want prayer for anything, I’m always here to talk to. Feel free to reach out to me through text (515-681-4145) if you want to chat or email me at [email protected] and I will do my best to respond asap!
Love y’all!
Quincy
