Today I am Seeking {3}

There is vulnerable, and then there is VULNERABLE.

I hear a lot, the call to "be vulnerable," about, oh!, how it will open those pesky relational doors, build community, stuff like that.

There is prison in everyone, I see that. I see how a call to be vulnerable is the call to free.

I see the call to free as being our human cry. And I am a product of great Healing from all of the things that twisted me up, in order that I might "go and do likewise."

But sometimes I worry that the call to "be vulnerable" is a sleight of hand (have you seen one lately?), that says "oh, hey, wait a second--this is all about me, MY prison, MY freedom..."

(I am afraid that too often it looks good on the outside but is all. about. me.)

And sometimes I think that in our rush to "be vulnerable!" we will entirely miss: the VULNERABLE.

And so, today, I am Seeking. And, today, this is what I found:

In poor urban neighborhoods across the United States, black and brown boys routinely have multiple encounters with the police. Even though many of these children have done nothing wrong, they are targeted by police, presumed guilty, and suspected by law enforcement of being dangerous or engaged in criminal activity. The random stops, questioning, and harassment dramatically increase the risk of arrest for petty crimes. Many of these children develop criminal records for behavior that more affluent children engage in with impunity. [B. Stevenson, Just Mercy, p. 155]

The twisting up for each of us is absolutely real (enter: the human condition), but for some the twisting up sits on top of a foundation of shot at and broken down. And can we be vulnerable enough to say that written into our white american (dare I say christian?) DNA is the lie that says:

They deserve it?

If we can be vulnerable enough for that, then maybe there is hope for the truly VULNERABLE.

[There is much we don't know; there is much we can learn. Reading Just Mercy will help.]