The Courage to Be Known: How Radical Vulnerability Opens the Door to Healing
There is something strange about the human heart. We long to be known, yet we are terrified of being known. We want someone to see us—not merely the version of ourselves we carefully present to the world, but the person underneath. Yet when someone comes close enough to see our wounds, failures, fears, addictions, insecurities and shame, something in us wants to hide. Perhaps this is one of the deepest wounds of the human condition: We want intimacy, but we fear exposure. And somewhere between the two, we learn to hide. Recently, I came across a powerful conversation on “radical vulnerability” in the context of addiction, healing and Christian life. Jon Seidl speaks openly about his own journey through addiction and the hidden wounds beneath it. One of the themes that emerges is that freedom cannot always begin with simply trying harder to change a behaviour. We have to become willing to look beneath the behaviour—to the hurt, fear, shame and disordered desires that may have bee...