I don’t know how to say this. So, I am just going to blurt it out. Writing is my therapy. The mirror I use that helps me see a soul that seems to get buried in this messy thing called life.
And I don’t write for money, or awards, or even publicity. In fact, when I started blogging, I had two separate lives…my blog life, and my real life friends and family.
But then it leaked.
Because we can never really keep a seal on who we are for too long. Eventually the pouring out of our authentic self will stain, and taint, and smear across any mask we have created for ourselves.
And I am a mess. A broken one, desperately in need of Christ. And the only healing I have found has been at the feet of Jesus… and through writing.
And though it would be easier to silence the pen. I have found time and time again, any gifts un-used will only implode in us, if we don’t choose to open them.
I remember when my inward life leaked to the world. It was the day I accidentally posted my blog to my Facebook page. I remember it well. And though I started to cringe, it was also the day I subconsciously started filtering the shouts in silence, the passions burning inside me, the doubts and dreams…
And slowly, without realizing it, the lies began to crowd in from the world….to my identity…
The one who had been so beautifully blossoming, online, now shrunk in intimidation due to “fear of man”.
And why is it, we can hide in fancy words, pictures on Facebook, speaking to thousands of what we feel…but cannot express elsewhere our true identity?
Failing to uncover our heads, unveiling all that we are, all that we are needing, to a world that likes to mold us into its form?
And I want to be authentic, real, a passionate lover of Christ; without improvising, falsifying, apologizing for who I am. Don’t you?
Please tell me friends, that you have felt the same colliding? The collide of being what others want, molding, and fixing and making yourself so that you will be more loved and accepted by the “circles of small lives” closing in to suffocate you….
Yet, all God wants is real. All He has ever wanted was the genuine, authentic, transparent souls of His people….even if they are a little messy.
So today I take my hand and pull off the covers hiding me. Stomping upon all those sub-groups that want to wrap me up in unrealistic expectations of perfectionism…
And I come to my Savior, to a dying world, to you…to the mirror…..lost, a little broken (still). I come weak, incapable, seeking the voice inside me, laying all I am at the feet of a God who loves me and calls me to “just be real”…
And I ask you. Will you take me? Will you take your neighbor? Your friend? A family member? Whoever it is trying to reach you? Will you embrace the ones around you trying to unravel the bandages covering their identity?
For life is lived better, more fully, ceiling-less, don’t you think? And true joy resides when we are free to come into the open spaces EXACTLY like we are…unchained, completely accepted, and fully loved by our God, even if rejected by a world who quickly rejoices at judging us.
And I am a little eccentric, a dreamer, way too passionate, and quietly persistent….but I wouldn’t trade a thing about how God created me….because that is me…and He loves me! He loves YOU!
And what if today, we vow together to stop dissecting, picking apart, or recycling our inner beauty?
What if we just threw off the confinement of who we are and truly loved one another with grace and mercy, in forgiveness, acceptance, and with a joy that says, people…all people…are important. Each one is a creation of God…
For friends, truth is, we will always be happier when UNITED together, stronger when we stand firm in solitude, more effective when we smash the barriers and just love the broken messes and unique people God has called us to be…don’t you think?
Yes, writing is therapeutic. And truth is, I am so beyond ready to “just be me”…
Will you join me agreeing, living life mask-free, reaching past the ceilings, breaking down the walls that confine us, divide us, hindering us from all that we can be?
Will you join me in this hour, for these last breathes of thanks, embracing, and walking free because God has created us not for popularity poles, but for us to exonerate Him and live life full and blessed and gifted in all the little quirky, fun, unique, glorious ways that He has seen fit?
Will you imagine with me for a second…what would it look like if the world was “just them”…and for once, for now, for a life time, you threw off everything that entangles you, and truly was, “Just be You”?
6 Comments
Loved your “Be real” post. It is time to be just us! Thank you for the link up
I have never been very good at hiding my feelings or my thoughts. I’ve always been told I’m “too sensitive.” Sometimes it’s hard to be that way, especially when there’s this other side of me that also wants to desperately please people, and does not like getting hurt or rejected. So, I often find myself caught between my openness and my mask.
I will join you in taking off the mask. For truly, it is suffocating.
The Lord loves us unconditionally – let’s try to pass on the same grace to those around us, freeing them to be themselves. And while we’re at it, let’s be just as graceful to ourselves.
GOD BLESS!
Whew…did this post speak volumes to me! YES, dear Lord, help me to just be me…minus the facades, minus the endless effort to be the person others expect. There is a Divine reason God made us who we are…not to spend our whole lives trying to be someone else, but to fill that unique role that He designed for us, individually. So thankful for you and your consistent encouragement to me. I apologize that I linked two links…the word came in just last night about little Max Brown’s turn for the worse, and I wanted to put out another plea for prayer. If you need to delete the first link-up, in order to make room for others, PLEASE know that I understand. The most urgent of the two right now is the prayer request for Max, as he is not doing well. God bless you, sweet friend!
I can relate to this topic so well! Thanks for sharing. Sometimes it’s difficult to know when to bare all and to whom, especially when it comes to employment and other aspects of life where there is more than judgment of man, but real consequences from people who don’t understand. God definitely calls us to share our stories because that is where others are helped and healed as well.
God moment! I just read your post – AFTER linking – AFTER writing an explanation of my post from yesterday, the post I didn’t really understand until this afternoon. AFTER – by writing, I admitted I don’t always know all the answers (imagine that!) and that I have to trust God to lead me… I wrote an example of your message… without knowing what it was. Don’t we serve an amazing God??
Jen, Thanks for sharing this with us. I was not familiar with all that was going on with Marc, though I’d read some things. I have not been a member of a church as this was taking place. We joined one shortly after this happened; the other had taken place several years before. I imagine it is very difficult.
Praying everyone sees the sins and not the man as the problem. We all have issues Christ is working on, some are more public than others. This should be when everyone comes together in prayer and unity for one of their own, not divide and conquer.