Courageous love enables us to be vulnerable.
~ JOSEPH STOWELL
Maybe you wouldn’t have felt vulnerable.
But I did.
If this is my year to VENTURE, I must say yes more often.
To Him.
So I said it, “Sure, I’ll be a speaker.”
Our church was planning a workshop for teachers of adult classes. They needed volunteers for break-out sessions to share how they prepare lessons. I would be one.
It’s not that I mind such ventures. I enjoy the preparation. I benefit from increased praying. I even love the mental challenge of honing a lesson down to 30 minutes.
But the public speaking part?
That’s where God was calling me to be vulnerable.
I’m not particularly scared of it, but I know I’m not particularly good at it. And I don’t like publicly demonstrating something I can’t do well. (It’s one reason I gave up bowling.)
Yet if I truly believe that God can work through anybody—that He can speak a message through anybody—I need to believe He can do that through me, too.
So I did it. I made myself vulnerable. I gave my talk, cotton mouth and all. I exposed a weakness and felt humbled by my inadequacy in it.
But you know what? It was okay.
It’s okay to be vulnerable for a cause.
It’s okay to expose your weaknesses to those who love you.
Even if it hurts a little.
Love requires vulnerability. It requires doing when the doing is needed, not waiting until you’re fully capable.
If you get an opportunity to show love, take it. Even if you feel weak and inadequate and unskilled, choose love.
If exposing your weakness can reveal His strength (2 Corinthians 12:9-10), strip naked. Show Jesus.
You’ll get grace back.
I did.
My friends showed up for my lesson.
They listened; they participated; they were nice afterwards.
I was protected.
Be vulnerable. Take courage. For Love’s sake.
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