Ever since I can remember, I have always been someone who keeps my struggles to myself. At time, my mom, dad or best friend Auston have been able pry into my mind to figure out what was going on, but even with those people closest to me, it was rare.
However, I decided I was done hiding my emotions, feelings and struggles and decided it was time to let my Christian community know what was going on. It was a weird moment in my life and something I will never forget. Being on the World Race, I knew I would have an awesome Christian community and awesome teammates, but the thought of opening up scared me. I didn’t know what they would think or say. After lots of prayer at the last possible moment towards the end of a team meeting, I opened up about what was going on in my life. It’s a moment I will never forget as my heart raced and sweat dripped down my body, but when I was done I knew a burden of keeping struggles to myself had been released, and that feeling was amazing. I finally let the Christian community God placed me in this year to help me grow and get help and prayer.
Having a strong Christian community is extremely important. And being open and vulnerable inside your Christian community is just as important. God gives us a community of Christian believers to worship him with and grow from. To be able to grow inside the community, you must first be willing to be vulnerable and share your struggles. Christian community should be one of the places where people can actually be vulnerable. Gathering with fellow Christians should be one of the few times where we don’t hide the realities of life and can open up.
It is important that if you haven’t found a group of people you can be freely vulnerable with, that you pray and find a group. Vulnerability is good, necessary and even spiritually required. A young child is vulnerable and it is one of the qualities I love in children.
In the Bible, Jesus tells us to become like children in our relationship with God and one another. That doesn’t me we don’t defend ourselves or discern who are and are not trustworthy people. We are to be wise and use common sense in regards to being vulnerable. God does not ask something of us that He isn’t willing to do Himself, and being vulnerable is one such thing. Please do not keep your struggles to yourself, make the step and open up to vulnerability.
