Fruits That Grow in Vulnerability
There is a great difference between successfulness and fruitfulness. Success comes from strength, control, and respectability. A successful person has the energy to create something, to keep control over its development, and to make it available in large quantities. Success brings many rewards and often fame. Fruits, however, come from weakness and vulnerability. and fruits are unique. A child is the fruit conceived in vulnerability, community is the fruit born through shared brokenness, and intimacy is the fruit that grows through touching one another’s wounds. Let’s remind one another that what brings us true joy is not successfulness but fruitfulness.
– January 4th - Bread for the Journey (Nouwen)
O, beloved, take these words to heart, please. You’re so quick to become discouraged when you perceive your delicate position. But, He takes that which is malleable and creates beauty and glory. Don’t lose hope. Your weakness, beloved, is but a mirror in revealing His strength, His power, His glory. What a privilege to be used as such. Aye!
O, child! You make a complete disaster of things in the kitchen and you lament over your doings. But, maybe…just maybe, the mess isn’t what you perceive it to be? What do you really know, O little one? You think you know, but you do not know what He knows. What you do know is: you are needy. You are verily needy, indeed. Take comfort, your neediness is a blessing. It has brought you closer to His loving arms, yes? Yes.
O, heart! You are so very fragile, so tender, so meek and lowly. Cheer up! Your vulnerability, although you question its value, its significance…it, perhaps, is your most cherished quality. What did you expect (said so very gently)? You are no longer made up of stone: hard, cold, lifeless…you are now soft, tender, sensitive…you are flesh now! (Ezekiel 11:19) What a gift!
O, soul! You long for intimacy, yes? Yes. So then, become the best possible student in learning how to touch the very wounds of God. Attend your affections toward His Word. Seek to understand, feel, and suffer the self-same emotions of your Beloved. Soak up every word He has ever spoken, pour out yourself, and know Him. Ask Him to make you fruitful.
You are vulnerable, beloved.
Rejoice! Be glad!
Again, I say, rejoice!