We’ve made no secret of our love for author/researcher/social worker Brene Brown. The Washington Post published a wonderful Valentine’s Day piece of hers, “A Love Note to a Workaholic,” which represents a fresh take on her familiar theme of vulnerability and its counter-intuitive power. Although she may make a distinction between vulnerability and weakness, I’m not so sure she isn’t describing the horizontal (and universal!) meat on the vertical bones of 2 Cor 12:9 (“strength made perfect in weakness”). When she speaks of perfectionism or workaholism, for example, she is talking about two of the more insidious modern iterations of…
Brene Brown on The Power of Vulnerability
A courageous address from Brene Brown at last year’s TED summit in Houston, jam-packed with insight and premised on a concept of ‘enoughness’ which has more than a little in common with what we talk about on here so frequently. It’s, um, enough to make one wonder where Brown, the social worker responsible for that fantastic article on Perfectionism a few months back, is coming from. That is, it seems positively soaked in Christian understandings, endorsing in roundabout ways the healing power of repentance, our enslavement to self-justification and inherent obsession with righteousness, the entire idea of strength in weakness,…
The 20-Ton Shield of Perfection(ism)
From cnn.com, a smart look at the subject of perfectionism by Brene Brown entitled “Want To Be Happy? Stop Trying To Be Perfect”. Although the “solutions” section definitely veers into self-help land, her discussion of the mechanics of the Law is pretty spot-on/convicting. Speaking as someone who “struggles with” this issue, I find that most people talk about it as a pseudo-badge of honor, i.e. “You’ll have to forgive him – he’s a perfectionist”, “I know she’s hard on you, but she just has really high standards” etc. It would appear to be one of those unsanctified modes of thinking…
Rebecca Todd: Well, I am sure both of you would win a debate so I'm not going there....
Jim McNeely: Rebecca, I agree, great comment! Yummy. Here are my thoughts.I thi...
Sam: Isn't the empty tomb proof? I remember a debate that involved Christo...
Zach: Wonderful jewel of honesty amidst the dregs of mealy pap spewed from l...
Rutger-Jan Heijmen: *Conan's...