Vulnerability: Naked and Unashamed

Yesterday in post clinical conference I decided to talk to the students about vulnerability. The discussion that followed only confirms that I do indeed have a QUALITY group of students. While I cannot do the conversation justice here in this entry I will try to touch on some of the highlights.
As humans created in the image of God, we have a desire to know and to be known. This takes vulnerability. Vulnerability can be frightening. However, it is in our vulnerability that we grow the most. It is also in vulnerability that the 'self' is overshadowed and the One who sustains us becomes more visible to others. Many times it is in our most vulnerable state that we can bare the most powerful witness.

2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

Another student discussed how the position of vulnerability should be respected. He also mentioned how we must see it as an honor to be the one who is present with another "when they're on the floor or in the bed."
"When it comes right down to vulnerability is what makes us as followers of Jesus different," replied another. "In other religions, it's all about appeasing an impersonal god. In Christianity, it's about giving yourself over to Him. It doesn't get any more vulnerable than that, it is in this that we have a personal relationship with the Saviour. Jesus even made Himself vulnerable here on earth, He died naked on a cross all for us!"
"When Adam and Eve where in the Garden of Eden the Bible says they were naked and unashamed. But the wanted "knowledge," so they disobeyed God and ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Suddenly they realized they were both naked and became ashamed. They hid and sewed together fig leaves to cover themselves. It think that today we have a deep longing to be 'naked and unashamed.' The only way we can do that is through Him."