From William C. Placher’s “Narratives of a Vulnerable God”
“To love at all,” C.S. Lewis once wrote, “is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one….It will be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, and irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.”
…for in Hell, we find the perfect place to maintain our separation from one another. When we can stay separate from one another, we do not risk the pains that come when we share ourselves. When we share ourselves with others, there is going to be time of brokenness, sadness, and pain that come with the times of joy, celebration and healing. A loving relationship means that we are brought into the whole life story of another person. The whole life story will be filled with every emotion on the spectrum. And yet, to give up giving ourselves away to others (loving others) will leave us with little life at all. In fact, that kind of separation or isolation does indeed have the making of Hell within it. And yet, when we pull away from other because we fear being vulnerable, we do not see the Hell that is coming by our refusal to enter deeply into relationship with others.
Connection: Never isolate…it is deadly for those around us and it is deadly for ourselves. The healthiest people tend to be those who have multiple relationships and are not afraid to give themselves away. Go for it.
O Lord, pull our lives into the domain of your love so that we may be a part of the beauty of your loving Reign that comes to life as we share ourselves with those around us. Encourage us to risk our lives in loving relationships even when we know the possibility of pain and sorrow that will be a part of our life together. Amen.
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