Vulnerability or Authenticity?

This year, I spent Thanksgiving with my family at the beach, like I do every year. On our way home this morning, my dad insisted that we listen to Dr. Rene Brown talk about her study on vulnerability in culture. She talked about how being vulnerable is not really acceptable in our culture. In relationships, people say, "Tell me you're afraid, tell me where you fail, when you've fallen," but she claims that really, the truth is nauseating and a lot of people can't stomach the reality of vulnerability. Well, all I could think of the whole time I was listening to this woman speak was about one night on mission trip to New Mexico and how a lot of us spilled our guts concerning what we were afraid about or upset over regarding the upcoming year. For example, I talked about how bad I am at surrendering to God, and how I was going to have to surrender my big sister to Him when she left for college. That was incredibly difficult for me, but despite talking about all my faults, it felt good, and my friends weren't nauseated by my vulnerability. I was being authentic. Authenticity with others is a big deal for Christians. I just remembered that authenticity that night, and I couldn't have wished for a better group to be authentic with. It was just a good reminder to be thankful for my youth group and for my entire church.