The photo above was taken on Anzac day. It’s ocean spray: I was trying to freeze this as the sea sent spumes of salt water twenty to thirty feet into the air. Needless to say, it got everywhere. The passers-by were looking at me — holding a DSLR with a fairly big zoom on it — and saying that I would damage the camera. (well, the things ARE weather sealed so you can do stuff like this). Everyone along that shoreline was getting drenched.
If you want to get close enough to experience the spray, you are going to get drenched. If you care enough to get close to another person, you are going to get hurt. You have as much ability to shelter yourself from risk as you have of remaining dry if you go swimming.
For that is merely being a friend, being a decent human being. If you move to being intimate with another, you are going to have to let them into your life, share your secrets, show your weaknesses (because they will be obvious) and then you will be vulnerable. Which is a lead into this comment, which summarizes the moral issue.
Well, weakness isn’t necessarily bad, just as strength isn’t necessarily good. When you choose to make yourself vulnerable, there’s usually some implied gain. Some men are emotional cripples, who live in fear of their own potential vulnerability. Some others are indifferent to the rewards offered in exchange for that vulnerability.
The idea that it’s courageous or admirable to avoid emotional injury is what I’m disputing. I don’t think it generally is. I think it is proof of corruption.
Now, a true leader cares for those he leads. He does not see them as some form of udermenschen to be exploited, but instead is open to them. This hurts. The demands of others abrade. True leaders deal with this, and the question is how. I am going to suggest that this is one reason for prayer. And it is a reason why we are told that we will be given what we ask.
7“Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 8For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 9Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? 10Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? 11If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
12“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.
13“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. 14For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
31When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ 34I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Christ is risen, and in this season of Easter we remember that. Christ is risen indeed, and he as an understanding of where we are. He also has high standards he expects us to get to. So we should be praying that we can deal today with the weaknesses in front of us.
We should be praying today that we do not tear down others, so that they are like us. Ill, unhappy, but equal. And we need to pray for the young people who are shunned in this fallen world, because they have standards in a time when many if not most children are raised as ferals.
And finally, if we pray for something do not be surprised if God gives us it, with all the burdens that entails, good and hard.