5 Comments

  1. Steve Brooks
    March 10, 2015 @ 8:50 pm

    For some reason God has spoken to me through this sermon – it has been unlike any of the 200 plus sermons I have heard David preach. That is how it feels anyway. I don’t question why, I just know it has and pray that God will do something with me through this. If you didn’t read the C.S. Lewis quote at the beginning of this blog read it again, and I pray you too are convicted by it. “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”

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  2. David Hanke
    March 10, 2015 @ 10:48 pm

    Thanks so much Steve. Being known captures my greatest hope and my greatest fear. It is the place where Jesus has a unique opportunity to speak into my heart. I am grateful for your encouragement.

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  3. Anonymous
    March 11, 2015 @ 4:48 pm

    A friend sent your post to me. From my perspective, what you’ve written is true. I think what’s also true, at least from my experience, is that the consequences (of living life together) can turn out *not* to be worth the risk in the end in some cases. That the pain inherent in risking being known and then being rejected simply isn’t worth it. And I suppose, then, that Jesus can be trusted to bind up those wounds, just like He can be trusted with who we really are, with knowing us. Because, well, he’s Jesus and He will never reject us. It’s just that… sometimes the risk of vulnerability, the risk of love here on earth, in real time with real people, feels greater than the reward. And if you’ve risked a lot, and been wounded a lot — or have wounded others a lot — there’s little left in you to want to take that risk again.

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    • David Hanke
      March 12, 2015 @ 10:16 am

      Yes. You have said it very well. The consequences of being known can seem to not be worth the risk. When we have been hurt, it can seem so much better to not allow that possibility of that pain to happen again. And in objective calculation, it might not be worth the risk.

      Everyone of us has to make that calculation. And all of us are walking around, playing out the risk calculations we have made. I know that sometimes I calculated well and sometimes I missed it.

      Sometimes I calculate to be more safe and cautious and in the end I wish I had opened up my heart more. Sometimes my heart gets crushed by the way someone responds to my gift of being known.

      I don’t believe I can make one choice about being known that applies to every situation. Some people are more safe and some people are less. My hope is that Jesus will provide the safe people that I (in particular) need. My thanksgiving is that He always does. (My point being that he provides enough safe people but not everyone is safe.)

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  4. Cathy G.
    March 14, 2015 @ 10:32 am

    Thanks for your further comments, David!
    I think for me — and probably all of us — another question is, “How can I be a safe person for others?”

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