Vulnerability And Grace
Who enjoys fragility? Who delights in death's prickles? But death is in us, and seeking its remedy is the enterprise of every man. And yet with each honest word, we expose our soft underbellies. Someone takes that stab, and then death prickles.
And who of us lacks all taste of belly? We are wolves. We condemn and we dominate and we ostracize in our pursuit of safety. And we develop our defenses.
But in the image of our creator, we were created to relate. Relationship is connection. Connection is living. And if we're either severing or being severed, how can we?
And because connection requires honesty, and honesty requires vulnerability, if our connections will remain, not only must we ackowledge our counterparts' vulnerability, you must allow them to do the same with ours.
So, a healthy relationship requires two things: 1) grace and 2) dependence on another's grace. We must abstain from belly-tasting, and we must risk our bellies being tasted.