Making Room for Vulnerability

Galatians 1:11-24

People can change. Really, they can. I seem to forget that sometimes. I’m so caught up in the here and now of life – the struggles and stress of dealing with people and their quirks; the rush to get “stuff” done; and, mostly, the monotony of the everyday – that I skim right over the opportunities for growth and change, for myself and others. Change comes through intimate encounters. When our vulnerabilities are exposed and acknowledged, and/or compassionately confronted, change can happen. However these moments take time – they take awareness – they take a willing openness – and they take courage…

You know those moments that I am talking about… those brief encounters… those couple extra words which made an ordinarily phrased response to, “How are ya doing?” mean so much more than what was at the surface; or the young person who steps into my office, and just plops down in a chair – its less than an hour before youth starts, and there is still planning that needs to be done – do I get up from my computer and take a moment to be present and available or do I halfheartedly listen, my head buried in the unfinished worksheet on the computer? or, when a friend sets me down so that we can talk, because they need me to know that what I said hurt their feelings…

Those brief encounters when… a butterfly is busy, “being a butterfly,” fluttering from flower to flower, and yet its present, delicate, beauty conveys to you so much more… an amber hazed sunset, dazzled with hues of pinks, purples, and blues, calls to the depths of your soul, and stuns the heart with wonder… an new idea or concept shatters your world view, replacing it with a lens more closely focused to the heart of God…

We all can testify about these encounters in our own lives, both moments we expected and those that caught us by surprise. The question for us today, however is this… “How much room are we making in the monotony of our lives to experience an encounter with the transformative power of vulnerability?”