Any real connection involves vulnerability because it takes the act of making oneself open to truly be known. God came to us floating in embryonic fluid. Slowly forming and taking shape. Embedded in the uterine wall of a Middle Eastern teenage woman It trusted to care Its fragile knitting process.
What it says about a God who’s willing to be this vulnerable is that God is willing to open Itself up to a deeply connect with us. The real question is, are we willing to do the same?
-Scott Erickson, Honest Advent, 39
To truly experience joy, one has to open themself up. And that means opening up to the possibility of hurt. You have to put skin in the game, to get your hopes up, and to leave the door open for those hopes to get dashed against the rocks of disappointment.
Take this superficial example: it is difficult to experience the euphoria of your team winning the game if you are just a passive fan. My team came three points away from knocking off a seeded team in the playoffs last week and in that game I experienced epic excitement and, ultimately, the sting of loss. To experience the thrill of victory, you are likely going to need to be familiar with the agony of defeat.
Less superficially, any relationship that truly brings us joy faces the same risk. As Erickson says, any real connection involves vulnerability. I doubt that my marriage would have made it as far as it has if we hid the shadow side of ourselves: the hurt, the pain, and insecurity that we do not just share with anyone. The joys of our relationship are built from the brick and mortar of our mutual vulnerability.
So we come to that Advent question posed above: What does it say that God is willing to be so vulnerable with us? That God is willing to enter into the fragile and fraught existence of a child in the womb of woman in First Century Palestine just to be with us? And are we willing to do the same? Will we dive head first into the deep waters of being with God and not just dip our toes in every now and then?
If we want to sing “Joy to the World” and truly mean it, do we not need to put some skin in the game?
