vulnerable

My first summer at Disneyland, I made an enemy.  This girl hated me.  I wasn't sure what terrible thing I had done to her but she was ruthlessly mean and constantly on a path to embarrass and belittle me.

I'm not sure why, but her harsh treatment never really affected me.  It was my "honeymoon" with Jesus, so I must have been so wrapped up in Him that I never gave her attacks a second thought.  It didn't matter to me what she thought.

If you haven't read Max Lucado's book, You Are Special, get it.  It is an excellent story reenforcing the truth that we shouldn't allow other people's judgments to "stick" to us.  "They only stick if you allow them," Eli the woodcarver says. Sharon (the director of Silent Voices) reads this story at the post-abortion workshops and it is so sweet.

After a couple years of terrible treatment from this girl, we eventually became friends.  One day following a parade, we both were standing next to each other in front of the mirror in the parade locker room.  She says to me, "Kori, when you first came here I hated you."  Duh!  I replied, "I know!  What was up with that?"  "You used to wear that shirt that had the picture of the baby on it."  Hmm.  Interesting.  Suddenly I knew this girl had had an abortion and felt I had been condemning her for it.  It was a pro-life shirt with a picture of a baby on it and the words, "This is a choice?"  I stopped what I was doing and looked in her beautiful eyes, "Do you know why I wore that shirt?"  Timidly, "No."  "I wear that because I had an abortion and Jesus has delivered and healed me."  She looked at me surprised and quietly said, "I've had one, too."

Be vulnerable.

So many people view Christians as unreal and untouchable because we often appear to have our lives together and give the impression (whether we try to or not) that life has never dealt us the hard blows. Truly, she who is forgiven much loves much.  I may know that and you may know that, but not everyone knows that.  We can seem unapproachable.  This girl became an open book when she realized that we really are not that much different.  But one of us was blood-bought and redeemed.

Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much.  But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. ~Luke 7:47

Years later, when I returned from my cruises I learned that she had given her life to Christ.  And recently she wrote me to tell me so and to tell me that she leads a dance ministry at her church.

Be vulnerable.  God will use it for His good.