Living Wholeheartedly
So we muster the courage to be vulnerable. We expose our stuff . . . our past, our weaknesses, our ugly parts. Our friends and family don’t kick us out. Maybe they even feel closer to us because we’ve admitted we’re not perfect. And maybe we feel relieved because we’ve unpacked our secrets and still found acceptance. Even forgiveness. But so what? What difference does it make? How then shall we live?
Brene’ Brown’s TED talk on vulnerability points us toward wholehearted living. Simply put, she’d say 1) Deal with your shame. 2) Decide you are worthy. 3) Get up enough guts to make yourself vulnerable. 4) Go take risk, be creative, start your own business and be all you were meant to be. Done deal.
I get it. I just get there a slightly different way.
Shame – It is the favorite weapon of the enemy. Satan wants us to disallow and ignore God’s complete forgiveness for things we’ve screwed up on in the past. He wants us to think of ourselves as losers, not “new creations in Christ.” As failures, not as totally accepted, unconditionally loved children of our Heavenly Father. But we know the Truth, and the Truth sets us free from all our guilt and shame, if we will just accept it.
Worthiness – Finished with shame, Dr. Brown wants us to decide we’re worthy. God wants that for us too. So much that He sent Christ to die in our place. If that doesn’t show we’re worthy, nothing’s going to.
Vulnerability – Since we’re worthy of being loved, we can take risks. We have nothing to fear. Dr. Brown would say,“we have ourselves to fall back on.” Her mantra is ‘I am enough.’ But Jesus-followers have more than that. We have assurance of God’s love. Unconditional. Pervasive. Unending. ‘I am enough’ is a wonderful psychological concept, but it falls apart if you’re stuffed away in solitary confinement. Or lost at sea. Or addicted to drugs. With Jesus in my heart, I am never alone. I don’t have to be enough. I have Him.
Courage – Yes, we can drum up the courage to be vulnerable all by ourselves. I think “Ok, I’m going for it. I’ll be ok . . . I’ll land on my feet.” But how much better is it to remember we’re not alone . . . that God is in it with us and for us.
“The Lord is for me; I will not fear; What can man do to me?” (Psalm 118:6 – emphasis added)
Wholehearted living – This is the one that lights me up. To live ‘wholeheartedly,’ I have to be able to engage 100% of my heart’s capacity. Harboring anger in my heart takes up capacity. Harboring bitterness, jealousy . . . harboring anything other than pure desire takes away from my ability to live a wholehearted life. To live full-on, I have to expunge everything bad from my heart. If it’s already been dealt with, if it distracts or disables me, if it weighs me down, I’ve got to let go of it.
In Scripture, the word for “heart” is usually from the same root as “desire.” Like we say, “He plays with a lot of “heart.” Whenever I see “heart” in the Bible, I’ll think the word “desire”. It usually speaks louder to me. So ‘wholehearted living’ is being all-in, doing my work heartily as to the Lord, not wasting time or energy on the forgiven past, on negative ‘dead-ends,’ on things that have been forgiven or don’t really matter.
Wholehearted living is living strong, energetically, and confidently. It’s engaging, living on purpose, and living 100% in obedience to and for the glory of Jesus Christ.
Question: Why not commit today to living wholeheartedly? Tell us here.
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Responses (7)
Just last night I had another reminder that I’m a loser. Or so I interpreted it, with Satan’s help. I KNOW I’m forgiven. I KNOW God loves me. I KNOW Satan has no power over me. But sometimes – way too often – I don’t feel that way. “I am enough” is hogwash. I can do nothing without Christ. Lucky for me, He is with me. (It’s not “luck”, it’s by the grace of God.)
Hi Pat,
I don’t know your situation, but do know that feeling. Been reading through Galatians 7x and has it ever straightened out how I need to think about the “loser” syndrome even Born Again believers can experience. Heavy saturation in that books truths may be God’s help!
Dave
Pat, we both know who’s trying to convince you that you’re not worthy. Grab a book called The Gift of Being Yourself by David Benner. It’ll help a lot. A little over 100 pages.
Love this post Regi! Thought provoking talk by Dr. Brown, though I’m relatively certain that she missed the central theme of living wholeheartedly – the reassurance that the creator of the universe has told us we’re good enough for Him. I’m sure you’ve reached out to her already to explain this…
Your final paragraph (sentence) will be on my whiteboard as reminder of how I want to live. Thanks my friend!
Doug
Thanks Doug.
Some good stuff here, yet I would definitely want to change “worthy” to “accepted.” Inherent worthiness is reserved for only One in the Bible. While we might say we share in this because of being “in Him” by grace alone, it is critical that we make that clear. Accepted, adopted, fully loved because we stand perfectly righteous in Him—that’s the believer, praise God!
Inherently worthy–that’s the Lamb that was slain!
No, I’m sticking by ‘worthy’, not because I’m worthy on my own. Absolutely not. But because He first loved me, because He chose me and adopted me into His family, I’m going to accept His love for me and the value He has for me. The freedictionary defines ‘worthy’ as
Having worth, merit, or value; useful or valuable. Through Christ, I think these words are true. Dave, my least favorite word in the language is ‘deserve’. Because I accept my worthiness through Christ doesn’t in any way translate into deserving anything. I’m not talking about pride…God hates pride. I’m talking about humble gratitude. The kind of ‘worthiness’ the beggars must have felt when they were ushered into the banquet feast and given the choice seats by the Master. They knew they didn’t deserve them, but if the Master says I”m worthy, then I”m worthy.