Power of Vulnerability
A friend of mine just sent me a TED Talk by Brene Brown called "Power of Vulnerability". So good.
Some highlights for me in the 20 minute talk are...
In her research she discovered that people who have a strong sense of love and belonging believe they are worthy. Worthy not because they are perfect, but in spite of their imperfection.
She defined the word Courage which comes from the latin "cour" which means "whole heart". To love with your whole heart. Not iding the shame, the vulnerabile parts of us.
She talked about compassion - that we first need to express compassion to ourselves, then out of that full place we can express compassion to others. So true, we can't give away what we haven't ventured into and live out ourselves.
The wholehearted live this way - out of a place of vulnerability - which is the birthplace of creativity, love, joy and belonging.
But instead of going there we're afraid of vulnerability. We try to numb it.
But we can't selectively numb hard feelings without numbing all other emotion like joy, belonging, happiness, peace, purpose and creativity.
I could go on, but so much of this talk reflects, echo's this years teaching series as well as our values as a Christian community. I encourage the River Church to listen to this, and pay attention to what Jesus might be saying.
These words spoken by Bene Brown are in some sense a "word" of God and therefore potentially a seed of new life to the listener. This is a good example of the love of God seeking us in every situation.