A friend of mine introduced me to Brené Brown's Ted talk on vulnerability. How are we doing at being vulnerable with each other? It is an uncomfortable subject, isn't it?
Paul wrote to his friends in Philippi in part because they were fighting. As an alternative he called them to the imitation of Christ. In a beautiful ancient hymn, Paul reminds us of Christ's vulnerability and willing submission to death on our behalf. One pastor described 2:5-11 as seven voluntary demotions. Thankfully, our great God did not leave his only Son in the grave. Instead he exalted him to the highest place. Every knee will bow to the one who left heaven for us. Every tongue will confess the Lordship of the one who wore a crown of thorns.
In view of Christ's great sacrifice, we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. We don't work for our salvation, but we work it out. Good news: we are not in the work of our sanctification alone. My friend Roger Duck loved to remind me that God is working in us to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. Brené Brown wrote about a mistake she made: "I realized if I owned my mistake as my own story that I would have the chance to give the story a different and better ending." It's true. Will we own our own mistakes so that we can grow? Time will tell!
