I was having late-night facetime with a youth pastor that I know from 8 years ago and wanted to share what he told me today. It may or may not apply to you, but read on.
Everyone has fears, hurts and scars from past experiences that we may or may not want to recall from memory. And those things may affect how we interact with those that are around us - some close, some not so close - and sometimes cause us to become closed, to shy away from becoming emotionally vulnerable towards others. And there is nothing wrong with that. There is nothing wrong with being human, being able to feel hurt, and setting up one's own self defense mechanism against possibly risking being hurt again.
Abe, the youth pastor, said the best thing you can do is give your friend a knife and turn your back to him. It's a little morbid and dramatic example, but what he wanted to say was that there is nothing to be gained by not willing to become vulnerable (again) to others. There is nothing to be gained when you do not invest your own trust in others. And maybe that friend can reciprocate and be willing to become vulnerable to you as well. Maybe you can find a brother or a sister in the midst of everything, like a gem in the desert.
One can be lucky and stumble upon such gems/persons, but in almost all cases, you have to be the one knocking on other people's doors, because 99.9% of the time, they won't be knocking on yours (or anyone else's).
But remind yourself that in order to love others, one must love him/herself first.
Our Greatest Fear —Marianne Williamson
it is our light not our darkness that most frightens us
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other
people won't feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.
—Marianne Williamson
I was having late-night facetime with a youth pastor that I know from 8 years ago and wanted to share what he told me today. It may or may not apply to you, but read on.
Everyone has fears, hurts and scars from past experiences that we may or may not want to recall from memory. And those things may affect how we interact with those that are around us - some close, some not so close - and sometimes cause us to become closed, to shy away from becoming emotionally vulnerable towards others. And there is nothing wrong with that. There is nothing wrong with being human, being able to feel hurt, and setting up one's own self defense mechanism against possibly risking being hurt again.
Abe, the youth pastor, said the best thing you can do is give your friend a knife and turn your back to him. It's a little morbid and dramatic example, but what he wanted to say was that there is nothing to be gained by not willing to become vulnerable (again) to others. There is nothing to be gained when you do not invest your own trust in others. And maybe that friend can reciprocate and be willing to become vulnerable to you as well. Maybe you can find a brother or a sister in the midst of everything, like a gem in the desert.
One can be lucky and stumble upon such gems/persons, but in almost all cases, you have to be the one knocking on other people's doors, because 99.9% of the time, they won't be knocking on yours (or anyone else's).
But remind yourself that in order to love others, one must love him/herself first.
Our Greatest Fear —Marianne Williamson
it is our light not our darkness that most frightens us
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other
people won't feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.
—Marianne Williamson
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.
—Marianne Williamson
No comments:
Post a Comment