To Be Fully Known and Truly Loved

I love quotes. I have had an obsession with two quotes in particular recently. They have to do with love but I don't think it would be what you're expecting, so here they are:

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable."- C.S. Lewis


And the second....

"To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.- Timothy Keller


So that is my goal:

To be vulnerable. 
To give someone the chance to fully know me. 
To give myself the chance to be truly loved.
To fully know and truly love others.

I'm not even talking about a romantic relationship. I'm talking about any relationship that matters. Any relationship that is remotely deeper than a "Hey, how are you? Good?! Okay, bye" type of relationship. 

People deserve to see the real me. They deserve to know the person I am when I'm joyful, when I feel like my world is crashing around me, when I'm angry. They deserve more than just a shadow of who I am. They deserve a person of flesh and blood in front of them with feelings, thoughts, dreams, fears, opinions and questions. They deserve to know a person who they can come to and share their life with. They deserve to be trusted with who I am. 


They are worth trusting.

I am worth knowing. 

There is nothing about me that makes me not worth knowing. There is no sin, no mistake, no experience that deems me unworthy of love and unworthy of being known by another human being. I am not just skin and bones. I am not just my past or my future. I am not just any one thing. I am a complex and interwoven tapestry where each thread is crucial to the bigger picture.  

But to trust someone with the intricate details of my picture is terrifying. Why would I take the chance that they would decide that who I am isn't worth the effort of knowing and loving? I wouldn't. But should I take that chance? The answer is absolutely. But why? 

Because without vulnerability we cannot be loved.


Because I deserve to be fully known and truly love. I am worthy of being fully known and truly loved

And it is the same for them.