time to grow up

When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable.  But to grow up is to accept vulnerability.

                                                              Madeline L’Engle

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Make no mistake

The most vulnerable people in the world are children

and they are easily damaged

I have held malnourished children in Kurdistan

Suffering from severe hypothermia

And watched them die

I saw children in Romania

throw away children

stuck in orphanages without nurture and love for years

rock back and forth with vacant eyes

I have seen children

dirty and sad

living in the dump in Mexico City

in cardboard huts in the middle of tons of garbage

I have watched them play with broken toys

and watch me with fearful eyes

I can imagine the immigrant children

separated from their parents

covered with a thermal blanket

lying on the floor

crying for their mother or father

Children take the brunt of

War, greed and hate

They are most impacted when tragedy strikes

With storms assail

But not only children are vulnerable

Adults too struggle with vulnerability

It is scary to be open

It is scary to put yourself out there

To bare your heart, your soul

It is terrifying to think of failure

And poverty

But adults, when they feel vulnerable

Have more choices

They can see vulnerability as the price of intimacy

Or understand that it is the gateway to courage

Even when it is hard, risky, costly, adults can choose vulnerability

They can choose to be open and caring, anyway

They can choose to be generous, anyway

They can choose to confront evil

Choose to put people in front of safety

They do this

Knowing they might be hurt

Knowing they might be taken advantage of

Know that they may end up with less

But people, in response to vulnerability

Can choose to respond in a way that denies or rejects vulnerability

Rather than embraces it

And when we reject vulnerability, it gets ugly

Bullies are people who are hiding from vulnerability

So are the greedy, who consume and horde, seeking

Always always always

To put themselves beyond threat (but they never really can)

So are those who judge

And reject

And exclude

The “Wall” is merely of a symbol of those who choose

Not to be vulnerable

So are guns

Even religion can be a coat of armor, shielding us from encountering

The difficult

The uncomfortable

The inconvenient

The costly (how ironic)

When one is not vulnerable

One is closed

Hard

And often cruel

Here is the hard truth

The only way to be truly human

The only way to be who we were created to be

The only way to follow Jesus

They only way to truly love

Is to be vulnerable

Which is perhaps why Jesus said….

“…unless you change and become like little children,

you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

Growing up means learning to choose vulnerability

O people of God

It is time to grow up!