Seth Barnes Oct 4, 2010 8:00 PM

His power shows up in your weakness

Vulnerability is defined as "capable of being physically or emotionally wounded." I wrote a blog on vulnerability and asked, is it a good or a bad thi...

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Vulnerability is defined as "capable of being physically or emotionally wounded." I wrote a blog on vulnerability and asked, is it a good or a bad thing? The Bible says that God's power "works best in weakness." 2 Cor. 12:9

After reading my post, a blog reader got after me for touting vulnerability as a virtue. He wrote: "There is no Scriptural support for vulnerability being virtuous."

Apparently if the actual word doesn't show up in the Bible then the virtue doesn't exist. Interesting. If we were to mistranslate the word "humility," and it didn't appear in the Bible, I wonder if it would cease to exist?

He said this right after another comment citing an example of vulnerability where the word doesn't appear: "One of the best examples of vulnerability for me is in Psalm 51, not only did King David humble himself before God he wrote it down for all to see. If leaders can not demonstrate this kind of faith how are we to help people grow into maturity?"

Then yesterday I saw in this blog post from Seth Godin that the market has recognized how "the appearance of weakness shows strength." He advocates the following actions:

Apologize

Defer to others

Avoid shortcuts

Tell the truth

Offer kindness

Seek alliances

Volunteer to take the short straw

Choose the long-term, sacrificing the short

Demonstrate respect to all, not just the obviously strong

Share credit and be public in your gratitude

He concludes, "Risking the appearance of weakness takes strength. And the market knows it." And I thought to myself: Do I really make myself vulnerable?

God likes it and the marketplace likes it. How about you? Do you hide your weakness or allow God to demonstrate his power through it?

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