This is why the evidently vulnerable are such crucial parts of all of our flourishing—why my niece Angela is not just the object of our care but a subject in her own right, someone who draws out from us the capacity to be truly and fully human. This is why our hidden and obvious flaws, failures and limitations are in fact the path to true strength. This is the good news for everyone who feels too vulnerable and powerless to have real authority: in the upside-down economy of the Kingdom, you possess the pearl which everyone must seek. Like Paul, who discovered that his “thorn in the flesh” was
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