"I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."
Jesus wants to give us an abundant life of joy. But to live in the joy of the Resurrection is to dare to be vulnerable.
“In her vulnerability research, Dr. Brené Brown has found that the most terrifying, difficult emotion we experience is joy. We’re afraid to lean into joy because the thought of it being taken away is so scary…
This isn’t how God wants us to live. He wants us to lean into joy and soar! So how can we break free of our tendency to pull back in fear and miss our lives because we are living in the gray? Underneath our reluctance to really embrace joy is the fear that we will fall. And consciously or not, we figure that the higher the place we’re falling from, the more it will hurt. So, we climb down from the peak of joy and sit in the middle ground of low expectations because it feels safer...
I can’t promise that you will never fall or that life will never bring you pain. But God makes us promises in Scripture that should make an enormous difference in the way we live...If you fall, God will catch you. It’s as simple as that. He promises that beneath you, no matter what height you are falling from, He will catch you in His everlasting arms.”1
Today's Challenge:
Engage in an activity that challenges your fear of vulnerability, such as volunteering, joining a small group, or writing a letter to a friend or family member telling them how much they mean to you.
1 Lisa Brenninkmeyer, Be Still: A Daily Devotional to Quiet Your Heart, (USA: Walking with Purpose, Inc., 2019) 51.
