Vulnerability

The RevGalBlogPals Friday Five from Sally this week demonstrates a reflective mood after the death of a young man during the week. Sally writes:

It seems almost crass to post a Friday 5 after Mary-Beth's last post and prayer request for our dear Gannet Girl and her family. So I hope that folk will take this in the spirit with which it is offered; that of continuing prayer and concern tempered by the knowledge that we are called both to weep and to rejoice with our communities.

I have recently been reading a book entitled Jesus wept, it is all about vulnerability in leadership. The authors speak of how Jesus shared his earthly frustrations and vulnerabilities with a select group of people. To some he was the charismatic leader and teacher, to others words of wisdom were opened and explained and some frustrations shared, to his "inner circle of friends: Peter, James and John, he was most fully himself, and in all of these things he was open to God.

So I bring you this weeks Friday 5:

1. Is vulnerability something that comes easily to you, or are you a private person?
I am a private person who doesn't wear her heart on her sleeve, AND I seek to be authentic and vulnerable without loading stuff onto others. When I show emotion or pain or distress those around me know it comes from a deep place.

2.How important is it to keep up a professional persona in work/ ministry?
Not sure it is a persona but it is important to be professional, to be there to serve the other and to keep the focus on the matter at hand.

3. Masks, a form of self protection discuss...
I have a few ... that I am often not even aware of wearing. The competent wise person is the way I am often perceived. Dunstan Rangers put it well: I'm a stranger to the confidence that others see in me

4. Who knows you warts and all?
My family. And those very few people who have known me through multiple stages of my life - John Murray and Robin Lane stand out in that group.

5. Share a book, a prayer, a piece of music, a poem or a person that touches the deep place in your soul, and calls you to be who you are most authentically.
In the 1980s I read a powerful book called something like Wounded Healer. A series of (auto)biographical accounts of health professionals experience of depression, anxiety and psychosis. I can't remember the details now but the impact of that book, about recognising and sharing and acting on my own places of unwellbeing, has stayed with me.