The longer I live, the more I'm amazed at the human tendency to anger. I am not speaking about the ability to become angry. I am referring to the tendency to carry anger around inside ourselves for injuries or injustices carried out many long years ago. One pin prick, one little rub the wrong way, brings on an eruption like that of a seething volcano.
Perhaps that is why Heather King's words in her book Redeemed struck me as very profound: I thought I'd be loved by being strong, by carrying my own weight, by not needing anything. I'd never understood we are loved by being vulnerable (p. 189). King is speaking of her own anger at a relationship gone awry. In her reflections, she realizes she too has some blame to carry. In her desire to appear strong, she isolated herself.
Perhaps that is why Heather King's words in her book Redeemed struck me as very profound: I thought I'd be loved by being strong, by carrying my own weight, by not needing anything. I'd never understood we are loved by being vulnerable (p. 189). King is speaking of her own anger at a relationship gone awry. In her reflections, she realizes she too has some blame to carry. In her desire to appear strong, she isolated herself.
Being vulnerable is important, not in order to soothe our own angry souls so much as to keep them aware of our real fragility. We read in Phil. 4:13 I can do all things in him who strengthens me. But in doing, we sometimes risk forgetting our fragility. It is easy, especially when you have been on the spiritual journey for a long time, to believe that you are stronger than you really are.
Perhaps we should keep in mind another verse from Philippians: Though he was God, he did not deem equality with God something to grasp; instead, he emptied himself, taking on the human in all things, becoming humble, even unto death. Being vulnerable does not diminish us; it is rather the fact of our human existence. When we understand this, we remember where our strengths lie.
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