In my book, Forgetting the Former Things: Brain Injury’s Invitation to Vulnerability and Faith (2019), I tell a story about getting ready for the Institute for Theology and Disability in 2017 which took place in Los Angeles, California. 

I had a million things to do.  I got a haircut. I went to the grocery store for snacks on the plane.  I stood in a long line at the post office to mail a package, taking deep breaths, only to discover when I got to the window, I hadn’t filled out the paperwork I needed.

Drivers were obviously annoyed when I drove the speed limit and they wanted to go faster.  Everyone is in such a rush these days. To calm down, I played a classical violin CD and between errands I took slow whiffs of the sandalwood-tinged essential oil I keep in my purse for just such occasions.

Amid my preparations, “I think I recognized my calling that afternoon.  As I was driving, the phrase came to me that I’m a ‘minister of vulnerability.’  As such, I can be as slow as I need to be… In our fast-paced, competitive, cutthroat society, it generally isn’t safe or respectable to be vulnerable.  But I have nothing to lose, so I might as well be honest with myself and others.  And in slowing my pace and showing my weakness, I can open space for others to share the tender and fragile places inside of them.” (p.82)

Several years later, Marcia suggested I get validated as a minister of vulnerability and in 2019 she helped me do this.  So, what exactly is a minister of vulnerability?  As a minister of vulnerability, I hope to be an “incarnational presence” by being vulnerable as Christ was vulnerable.  An incarnational presence emphasizes “being” instead of “doing.” Jesus made himself vulnerable as he was crucified on a cross in front of a crowd of people.  I certainly do not compare myself to Jesus but I do want to be like him and I believe being a “minister of vulnerability” is a step in this direction.

Brian Keepers, a Reformed minister wrote in a blog post in 2016 that “vulnerability is the pattern of God’s own movement in the world – from creation to incarnation.”  The Adam and Eve story is less about sex and more about vulnerability.  Adam and Eve, naked in front of God, felt vulnerable and tried to cover themselves up instead of embracing who they were.

Jesus was naked and vulnerable on the cross. Even when he was raised from the dead, he still had the marks of the nails on his side.

If the pattern of God’s own movement from creation to the risen Christ is vulnerable, then we can and should be as well. People don’t need to find a way to become more vulnerable; we ARE vulnerable.  We just need courage to express these vulnerabilities.