Vulnerability

I know... I don't really have much of a blog but here is my first attempt to start blogging more. It is now one of those few passing days of "winter" in Houston... yes, that means a cold front has blown through. I actually love the cold more than I like the heat and my roommate and I are also cheap thrifty... so we have decided to not heat the house. The first night I even opened my window. So now it is about 65 degrees F inside my room. What is great about this is that you can curl up with a bunch of blankets to keep warm. What is bad about this is that you HAVE TO get a bunch of blankets to keep warm!

This isn't a huge issue until the next morning when I go from under big blankets to a cold tile floor in the bathroom barefoot and get into the cold tile shower. I'm not excited about this but after a snooze button or two, I do it. Why do I do it? Because it is necessary for my health, my sanity, my job, and my well being. So it is with the Gospel.

The world is a cold place, and sometimes it feels good to get under the cover of our middle-class, good-looking, English-speaking, mentally-there, conservative, Christian friends and family who all think pretty much the way you do. There is comfort in that it indeed can be refreshing. But if we live under those covers, the world stays cold, broken, and hopeless without Christ. If I never got out from under the covers, I would lose my job, go insane, get sore, start to stink, and starve to death. Someone once said that Christians are a lot like cow manure: "If you spread them around, they can do a lot of good, but if they sit there, they just stink."

In our willingness to get out and get vulnerable, God cleans us up, and sends us out to change the world with His hope. In our nakedness, we are vulnerable to danger and the cold, but in this danger we are required to trust in God's provision more, and His grace is that much more fulfilling and renewing (just like a hot shower in a cold bathroom).

Vulnerability is the opportunity for both danger and intimacy. You must choose one or the other. If you fear the danger, then you may doubt whether the intimacy is worth it. If you fear the intimacy... well, that's a bigger issue (but good to realize now). Whether it is now or later that Christ heals your heart, I pray that you too understand as I have come to realize that vulnerability is worth it.

Though people may fail you, God has always got your back.