Vulnerability + Gospel

A primary aim of psychotherapy is to usher the client into a more authentic and vulnerable existence. Upon graduation and exit from the therapeutic process, if you are more tuned into your finitude, and more capable of stripping down the pretenses of being anything more or less than human, then we can take pride and satisfaction in what has taken place in that little office.

For many years, I’ve played with the notion that therapy’s end is not a far cry from preparing our hearts to receive the gospel.

The quintessence of the Good News is humble dependence on Someone infinitely better than ourselves. Once, our dear friend and Christian scholar Robert Covolo said, “To be saved, all you need is nothing – but most people don’t have that.”

Nothing?! The raw terror inherent in looking down at our empty hands is exactly what we must grapple with in the therapist’s office. Only these admissions of our lack can make room for the fish-multiplying and bread-breaking Savior.

Vulnerability is a sort of synonym for humility. It’s a bare existence that recognizes our smallness. To be vulnerable is to be weak with no pretenses, no escape hatch.

In parallel fashion, I believe the heart of the gospel is humble dependence on Jesus Christ rather than self. This is a deeply offensive message to those of us wallowing in a narcissistic defense against vulnerability. On the other hand, for those of us who have stripped down to that painful bareness and realize we aren’t all we wish we were, the gospel is the best news there ever was. Christ can’t connect with us if we have 2-inch thick armor on. On the other hand, if we recognize our frail humanity (we are but dust, as Psalm 103 suggests), we are primed for the gospel and an intimate relationship with our Savior.