I hear the word, “transparency” a lot. It’s like the unattainable for any governmental system. After all, to quote one of the songs from Hamilton, “no one else was in the room where it happened.” Ok. Well that’s government: what about in our personal world? Can a human being be transparent? In a world saturated with cancelling each other out, online bullying, and modern-day ostracism; maybe not.
But, what if in the honest stripping down of social-norms, the tearing down of societal taboos, in the conversations about past struggles: that was where, and when, we can honestly testify to the beauty that God worked out of our darkest most broken moments? If God has worked all things in a believers life for good, then why are we as believers so hesitant to be, transparent? God already forgave us. HE redeemed us. Yet, so many of us do not fully share with our brothers and sisters, in true fellowship, simply out of the fear of their judgments, or perceptions, of us.
It’s unnerving, isn’t it? To lay bare one’s weakest moments to a world so eager to tear us to shreds. But, what if our honest vulnerability helped someone else deepen their walk with Jesus? What if Jesus wants to use our past to speak to another’s present? Yet, we believe the lies that our past is shame filled and ugly, neglecting the beauty God worked out of those situations. What if, as believers, we boldly embraced the grace Jesus extended to us on the cross? What if, we lived in that grace, fueled only by a desire to honor Jesus?
How transparent would we be then?
Now, I’m in no way saying to publicly share the intimate and pain filled details of our lives, after all, it’s not about us. I’m encouraging us to share how Jesus walked with us in some of our more trying times.
If Jesus has proven to you, personally, how real HE is, then, how can you not share that? How can you not want another person to be encouraged by the restoration and regeneration that is only found through Jesus? Or, do we only want to testify to the majesty of Jesus when it’s “safe”? When it’s comfortable?
How transparent do we really want to get?
Life has dealt me and my family some pretty rough blows. But God…
HE’s been so faithful, so comforting, so REAL. How can I not want that for another widow? How can I not want to encourage a single mom? How can I not want to sit next to the person dealing with a mental-health crisis? How can I not want to love the person picking up the pieces from the wreckage of a divorce, or suffering through a betrayal, or praying daily for their lost spouse? How can I not want to hold the hand of a woman contemplating getting an abortion because they don’t see a way through the darkness?
God has seen fit to grow in all of us empathy for those enduring (in the now) what we’ve endured already.
As believers, our perspective on suffering should be different. We should count all things as a loss for the sake of Christ. We should encourage our brothers and sisters and build each other up. We’re supposed to pray for one another, and confess our sins that we may be healed.
How transparent are we? And… how do you define fellowship?
Let’s be peculiar people… let’s be real with one another… and, let’s point to Jesus.