I've been thinking a lot lately about vulnerability. Like a lot words, "vulnerability" has taken onboard a lot of added meaning. We talk about the need to protect vulnerable people, as we should. "Vulnerable" in that sense seems a straightforward use of the word.
We also talk about "being vulnerable," more specifically, making ourselves vulnerable. This is almost always spoken about as if it's something one ought or even needs to do. This rather expands the word.
As to the encouragement to make one's self vulnerable, in the first place, I would say that to be alive is to be vulernable. It's easy to argue that is vulnerable enough! How much more vulnerable do you want to make yourself?
Well, to love is to make yourself vulnerable. I daresay most of us have had our hearts broken and not only by lovers but perhaps by parents, children, friends, fellow believers. Love is a risk. If the risk was removed, would it be, could it be, love?
All of this is a wind up to stating the reality that going into ministry, when done with proper awareness and discernment, is to make yourself quite vulnerable. Like marriage, this should scare you a bit. This is also why those in ministry can seem a little gun shy. It is also why, increasingly, quite a few people who go into ministry only stay for a season. Unless you've been on the other side (i.e., in ministry), it's difficult to explain.
I sometimes think I try too hard to tie things up with neat little bows. I'm not going to do that today, on this penitential Friday.
Our very late traditio, which I had ready on Friday, is Colin Hays' cover of Stevie Winwood's "Can't Find My Way Home."
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