Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Naked

There are many things I enjoy in life, but writing is not one of them. And here in language school (in Costa Rica), I seem to write almost every day in a new language.  This has made my desire to blog even less.  

If I had my way, I would be sitting at a coffee shop with you and chatting away.  As we sip our drinks, we would share how our kids are doing, when our summer vacations are planned for (and all those fun details), and all about the last date that our husbands took us on.  Eventually, if I feel safe enough, I may share what God is teaching me; the real, raw, and ugly lessons that God is presently teaching me.  

I am sure I would start off a little embarrassed and possibly apologize for the bluntness (and possibly the offensiveness) of what He's teaching me.  Depending on your reaction, it's quite possible that the next thing you might hear me say is, "God is teaching me the importance of being NAKED."

Yes, you read that correctly. God is teaching me the importance of being NAKED. 

I have spent the past ten months in a state of nakedness.  During these months my entire identity has been stripped away as I have had to learn/re-learn: how to grocery shop; how to cross the street; how to get out of my house and the surrounding bars quickly (if needed); and how to pay the electric bill (don't you also pay yours at the grocery store?).  

I have been thrown into a world where you meet a new person and become their best friend in 2 days, so that you can have a friend for the next 3 months, before you have to say goodbye and move to separate countries.  I spent years in the United States working on my bachelor's degree and then on my master's degree and years in becoming a professional educator, only to have those years lose their significance.  After all, who cares who you were before, when you sound like a two year old when you talk?  There have been times where I have been so sick and the muscles in my body were so weak, when I coughed I would wet myself (and not just a tinkle).  I have had to depend on doctors, nurses and medicine to help me breath on a daily basis.

Isn't life like that?  What once had significance, no longer does.  Businesses come and go.  People come into our lives, we love on them, share life with them, open our hearts to them and then circumstances happen and they are gone.  We find a ministry where we are using our gifts and talents.  We are encouraged and enjoying it and then something happens that completely changes the ministry.  Our health changes and we see that our bodies are weak.

It seems like I (and maybe you can relate) have spent the past 10 months trying to find significance; I have been searching for me.

A couple of weeks ago the Lord used the gifts of Ray Ortlund to speak into my empty heart.  Ray had us reflect on the following question:

"What kind of Christianity do broken people want to be a part of?"

We spent the week digging into:  Grace in Justification, Grace in Sanctification, Grace in Community, Grace in Weakness, and more.  As we dug into these deep concepts, Ray shared many simple truths.  One specific simple truth was that because of the cross of Jesus, God doesn't care about what we deserve. Christ suffered (like we deserve) so we could receive Heaven (what we don't deserve) and be in relationship with him.

As the truth of this sunk into my heart, my mind was on the cross.  I could see Jesus, with blood dripping down his face, his hands, his chest.  On the parts of his body where the skin was not ripped open, I could see bruises all over. I could see the hurt in his eyes; the betrayal of people who were his closest of friends.  I could see his nakedness; his body was left bare for the whole world to see. 

I immediately felt embarrassed for Jesus; humiliated for him. How horrible to be completely naked, bloody, beaten up and hanging on a cross, as a spectacle for all to see.

  I felt this way until the Lord reminded me of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2:25 where it says, "Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame."  Wow! I was created to be in relationship with others, completely "naked"; completely vulnerable and without shame.  When I am open and honest, allowing the real me to be seen, my faults are evident; my sins are written on the banner; my ugliness, my unfairness, my critical spirit, my fear of failure, my comparisons, my judgments are all there for the world to see.  And yet, Jesus' blood covers it all and so what the world really sees is Him.

Wow; I can stop covering up who I am!  I can be me.  I can repent; I can be honest; I can allow others to see the good, the bad and the ugly. I can trust that Jesus will redeem it all so that HE alone will be seen!

In my "nakedness" Christ will be seen.



Made Alive in Christ

Ephesians 2 (NIV)
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time,gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace,expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

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