S2 - Episode 018: Fear of Vulnerability and How We Fight Against It

Episode Description

Can we just be real and honest for once? I'm sure many of you are struggling. We often struggle but feel like we have to pretend that everything is OK. That's exactly what the enemy wants us to do. In episode 018 of the podcast, Aaron talks about the importance to fighting against the worlds stance on vulnerability and how your vulnerability can encourage someone else to live an authentic life.

Episode Insights

Do we know our emotional health or are we unaware of what we’re dealing with?

What keeps us from being real about how we’re feeling? Back in season one, I had a three part series on being fakers. I’d encourage you to jump back and take a listen to those episodes. They’re episodes 008, 009, 010. What’s different about this episode is we’ll look at...

In the faking episodes we looked at the internal factors (our pain, insecurity, etc.)

We will touch on that but in this episode we’re addressing the external factors like...

How Society communicates to us about what we share
How we’ve seen the Church view it
How there’s never been a more important time to be living outside of your head

“Evil never wants to be noticed, I should mention here. It sneaks in and hijacks our minds, and we barely notice anything’s amiss.” - Get Out of Your Head by Jennie Allen.

I want to start by asking us this question: DO WE THINK PEOPLE ARE HONEST?

Say someone hits your car in a parking lot, do you think they’ll leave a note with their insurance info?
What if someone say you drop a fifty dollar bill, do you believe they’ll flag you down to give it back to you?
Do you think everyone is telling the truth when they say “they’re doing good.”?

VULNERABILITY DOESN'T FIT IN

Social media communicates to us a false picture of life and tells you its not OK to struggle.

I'm not saying that social media is the place for us to put our diary, but it's definitely an unbalanced scale-topping heavily on the side of fake.

VULNERABILITY IS SEEN AS A WEAKNESS

Often times the mere idea of being vulnerable is met with resistances. Many view it as a weakness. In the church it can be seen as if you don't have enough faith or you aren't walking closely enough with the Lord.

VULNERABILITY/HONESTY CAN BE SEEN AS DIVISIVE

Sometimes it's viewed as you not being a part of the team or not being unified with the efforts of the organization.

Real vulnerability allows for two way conversation and growth to take place.

The Application

HONESTY NO MATTER HOW HARD

HUMILITY OVER PRIDE

To put my value in what I do is only limiting my benefit in seeing the work of God, it doesn’t limit the power and work of God.

Here’s what I know...

Many of you are listening to this podcast, but let’s be honest you have no plan to do anything about your emotional health.
There are millions of people, who won’t accept that they are struggling.
Many of you are afraid of what might happen to your marriage, your friendships and your jobs if you tell people you’re struggling.

Here’s my encouragement/challenge to you, you are a slave and you can’t expect to move toward freedom if you are living in pride. This could manifest in fear or denial.

Rich relationships prosper only when you are real and transparent. Deception erodes the beautiful “naked and unashamed” kind of vulnerability that is the bedrock of healthy, fulfilling relationships. - Levi Lusko - I DECLARE WAR

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. - James 5:16

ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO BE AUTHENTIC

Please don’t get on Facebook and tell everyone how miserable you are. I’m saying that we do this through one relationship at a time.

I mentioned this a moment ago, but millions of people are not doing an emotional/spiritual assessment on themselves and we need to be encouragers of living an authentic life. This doesn’t mean we shame people, it means we live authentic lives so that we can encourage others to do the same.