From Forward Day by Day
1 Thessalonians 2:8 So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.
In the conversations I have with Saint Paul in my head, I ask him why he didn’t write, “Especially our own selves” instead of “but also.” Fear of sounding arrogant, I presume.
What is the gospel, though, unless it seeps from the cracked places of our own lives? Unless we reveal the wounds that the good news has healed. It is from these wounded places that the gospel is actually revealed. It is not our talk about gospel but the experience of the gospel. When I reveal my own fear of being a fraud, it is only overcome by trusting God to help me be authentically myself.
When I reveal my struggle with abandonment issues, I am healed through inclusion in God’s kingdom; it is from those wounds healing that I understand and can share the gospel.
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