Vulnerability is a big theme with me – in life, in relationships, in theology. It’s one of the reasons I’m such a big fan of Brené Brown. In her TED Talks on vulnerability and shame, and in books like Daring Greatly and The Gifts of Imperfection, she writes candidly and movingly about the importance of being vulnerable and the challenges to doing so. It’s a key theological category for me because I think it’s what we see so vividly in the person and ministry of Jesus. Not only there, of course, as the God who commits to creation, gives over free will, offers laws and guidance, pleads for people to treat each other well, gets angry...
Philippians 2:12-13
posted by DJL
Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Love always includes an...
Philippians 1:18b-19
posted by DJL
Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will result in my deliverance. As we’ve touched on already and will see again and again, one of the significant questions Paul’s letter prompts is just how in the world...
Love Weeps
posted by DJL
Is there a bad reason for going back to church? I was struck by Brene Brown’s confession that she went back to church for the wrong reasons. Actually, I know what she means. She went back to church to try to escape pain and instead found a community to help her endure pain, live with and...
Mark 10:17-31
posted by DJL
As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not...
Mark 9:14-29
posted by DJL
When they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them. When the whole crowd saw him, they were immediately overcome with awe, and they ran forward to greet him. He asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” Someone from the crowd...
Mark 9:2-8
posted by DJL
Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were...
Real Community
posted by DJL
One more thing from Brene Brown. This time, not a video, but two recent posts from her blog. In the first she describes a recent experience she had writing for USA Today and the affect of unfiltered comments, some of which were incredibly insulting. As she writes: Ironically, the essay is...
The Power of Vulnerability
posted by DJL
Most of life, I think, is a dance between our desire to be loved and accepted, on the one hand, and a desire to protect ourselves from being rejected and hurt on the other. The trouble is, these two desires are most often at odds. That is, the only way you can believe you are really loved and accepted is if you allow yourself to be really known. That is, you stop pretending to be someone else; otherwise, you can never know for sure if they love you or the person you’re pretending to be. But to allow yourself to be known is a risk. The person to whom you reveal yourself may not like you, or may reject you, or may run away from you....
37. Mark 15:39
posted by DJL
Now when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was God’s Son!” What are we to make of this centurion? Some see him as a foreshadowing of the “mission to the Gentiles” that will take place in earnest with the ministry...
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