Peace of Mind- Mental Health Conference

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Adventist WholeHealth Network

Dee Casper

The Strength of Vulnerability

Sweet Jesus, thank You for this privilege to come into Your presence.

And I'm reminded of the promise that You've given us that our greatest argument in prayer is our need.

And I confess this morning, Lord, I don't have what these people need, and I need you, and they need you.

And so, Jesus, I pray that you would condescend to dwell in this place and in my heart, and that you would minister to all of us in a way that none of us would soon forget.

As Moses prayed, I asked that you would show us your glory this morning, and I ask it in Jesus' name.

I do have the privilege of working with CORE.

If you haven't met us, shame on us, but I think you probably have, whether it be my students, myself, or our staff.

But we'll be talking more about that through the course of the school year and ways that you can get involved for next year.

I'm going to skip that because I would like to, you know, preach and stuff.

So this morning's message is entitled The Strength of Vulnerability.

Now, fellas, it's going to be different than what you heard, so it's okay, you can actually pay attention today.

So, for many of us, the topic of vulnerability is something that we view as weakness.

Maybe some of us come from cultures where you're told, you don't talk about your problems to other people.

The deeper it is, the less you have to deal with it.

That's actually not even really good for you.

But for many people, we may believe that vulnerability is a form of weakness.

But what I hope is going to happen this morning is after looking at the life of Jesus, who is our chief example of how to do life, will realize that Jesus lived a life of radical vulnerability and for a very, very good reason.

But I want to give some disclaimers here.

There needs to be a balance to this, right?

What I'm not asking you to do is start running around the dorm and in the assembly saying, look guys, I am a hot mess.

Let me just tell you all the issues I got in life and just start running down the lineup.

But there is a very real sense in which many of us are avoiding the community that God has intended for us to have in this fellowship.

Katie addressed that last night for us in a very, very helpful way.

She also used Galatians chapter 6 and verse 2, which I also happen to like, so it's on my slides as well.

The idea that we should be bearing 1 another's burdens, right?

You are not just here to consume, you're also here to help those around you, right?

Now, 1 of the easiest places to run from vulnerability and to avoid vulnerability and our own issues is ministry.

Many people are finding themselves in an experience of busyness to avoid their brokenness.

We find ourselves so engaged in the Lord's work because we really don't want to deal with our own stuff.

And praise the Lord for the fact that we're doing His work, right?

But what I've come to find is once I found the courage to face my own stuff, my ministry became more effective.

So we're not saying avoid ministry, but we are saying is your ministry will become even more effective when we choose to be vulnerable and acknowledge the things that we're wrestling with.

It's easy to focus on helping everybody else with their issues without truly knowing ourselves.

Did you know it's possible to know a great deal about God and the Bible and about ministry and know very little about yourself?

I lived an experience of that in ministry for nearly 5 years, having no idea just how deep my brokenness ran.

And if we have faulty core beliefs, which we'll hear about later, but if we have faulty core beliefs and negative views of ourselves, it can get even worse.

Because what we'll find ourselves doing is giving to everyone else what we feel that we don't deserve.

I'm not worthy of being loved and accepted, but I would do anything for everyone else around me.

I've shared some of my story with you last year, but I grew up in a home where my parents got divorced when I was about 3 or 4.

And that's already traumatic and really difficult for a small child.

But my mom, when she remarried, My dad was her second marriage.

When she remarried for her third marriage, the guy beat her up really bad.

And my dad's dad lived in a nice subdivision.

Mom didn't get custody, but she got visitation.

But even as a five-year-old boy, I knew something wasn't right.

And immediately my heart was filled with fear.

And I began a process at a very early age, at the age of 5, numbing pain perpetually, without even knowing that I was feeling pain.

That it's possible to be living a life of numbing pain without even knowing that you're feeling pain?

I even found myself in ministry, and I would tell people my story.

And people would say, man, that's so bad.

My mom has actually been married and divorced 7 times total.

She's had a rough life, a difficult experience, and it's because She didn't get what she needed from her parents.

She was looking for men to fill her in the ways that her family didn't.

So it's not fully mom's fault really, right?

When you get set up for brokenness and you don't see Jesus, you're just gonna run to whatever you think works, right?

But I found myself in ministry telling my story and I would even tell people, fully believing this was true, that it's a miracle of God's grace that I don't have any baggage from my upbringing.

But nothing could have been further from the truth.

And it's kind of scary, actually, to realize that you can be living an experience that isn't actually true.

I was in ministry from basically around 2010 until about 2016.

A friend of mine had told me 2 years earlier, hey, you need to meet this guy.

He came and did this training at my church, it was amazing.

And I thought to myself, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's probably great for other people, but I mean, I don't have brokenness, I don't have any issues, so if I did read his book, it would be for someone else's benefit, because I don't have issues.

Because that's why we're in ministry, right, to help everybody else with their problems, because we don't have problems.

Yeah, so I had problems and didn't actually see the problems that I had.

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The Strength of Vulnerability

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