Not For Sissies?
I don’t think I felt surrounded or over-powered (out-numbered, yes!), but growing up in the middle of four brothers did have an impact on me. I eventually learned to relish my unique, left-handed femaleness, but during my first decade of life I did not want to stand out too much from my brothers.
I admired their toughness and spirit of adventure. They possessed an invulnerability that I found lacking in myself at the time. Brothers did not cry so easily. Tears were a sure sign of weakness and vulnerability. Showing weakness and fear could merit the dreaded label of SISSY. Today I find it sweet to hear a big or little brother referring to his female sibling as sissy. It is a term of endearment not of judgment. This was not the case when I was growing up.
Last week I came across an intriguing book titled, Growing Old Isn’t for Sissies. According to the Amazon synopsis, the book’s author, Dr. Marshall Cook, believes that what really matters as we age is not the condition of the body, but that of the spirit. The book focuses on the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual challenges we encounter as we age, primarily after age sixty-five, and what our Christian faith has to say to those challenges and changes. Sounds like a title I need to add to my personal library!
As we know as Christians, and cling to with faith, our God is there to help us on our life (or Lenten) journey no matter what our age. None of us actively desire pain or heartache or the limitations of an aging body, but how much can we learn about ourselves and our God when we accept these vulnerabilities when they inevitably arrive?
It is a challenging task to allow yourself to be vulnerable. Living, loving and Lenten journeys call us to that state. Jesus was our beautiful role model of vulnerability, as we well know, to the point of even death on a cross.
Vulnerability is about strength and openness to life and love, to faith and hope, to God’s will for our lives.
Not only is aging not for sissies, neither is professing Christ nor embarking on Lenten journeys.
Should we not aspire to be sissies? Not the kind that is cowardly, fearful, or complacent about our sissyness. Be a sissy who is strong in vulnerability, compliant in loving, submissive to God’s grace. Do not be afraid to show your vulnerability. Take it to the Lord and He will make it your strength. Be that kind of sissy this Lent.
Prayer from Sister Joyce Rupp book, Jesus, Guide of My Life:
Disrupter of Complacency, when I am hiding behind quavering fears and lack the firm courage to do what is right, drag my reluctance out of the murky shadows; walk tall with me as I go beyond my comfort zone and hold my hand so I do not falter on the way.