Sunday, March 11, 2012

Glass.

I was stumbling or tumbling or something around the internet the other day when I came across a page that was all about advice for life. I saw one piece of advice that said " never let anyone know your weaknesses".

I thought about that... and I think that is wrong.
I think you should let people know your weaknesses. It serves a few purposes. 1) It makes you aware of your weaknesses. 2) It shows you the character of those who wish to exploit your weaknesses. 3) Prompts you to either overcome your weaknesses, or 4) find people who can cover your weaknesses. So my advice tonight is two fold, don't take that first advice, and two, be honest with everyone.


I then thought to go on about my business with more mindless wanderings and musings, but this one stuck to me.  Where do I even begin to describe what is going on in my head. This is literally the stuff that keeps me up at night.There may be no end to what I want to write about that. Every story starts with a word though right. 


Weakness. 

We're taught that it is this evil dark and awful thing.  Every man wants to be the one that is looked upon with all the right moves, and all the sweet words. The strong man. The clever man, who is a solid go getter that you can pass the proverbial ball to and he can execute the play with exact precision. We all want to be super man.  We don't want to disappoint. We don't want to fail.  


But we do.  We do fail.   We do hurt.




We all do.  And I think its in pretending that we don't or that we fail less than others, kills us. 

If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.
- 1 john 1:8-10


So.... If we are going along and pretending that we never stumble or that we have it all together all the time, then we are probably not being truthful. IF we aren't honest about our weakness we probably aren't a beacon of humility. 

What does this lack of transparency produce?
 An illusion. A deception.

What would being open about things give?

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,  who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God". - 2 cor. 1:3-4

Having been truly weak we are more compassionate to the weak are we not?
Having been recipients of unmerited favor, shouldn't we be more gracious to others? 

So when we are honest and say " hey, I'm going through something... Or I've gone through something, we are demonstrating honesty and God prepares us to help comfort others.
When we deny this, we don't represent a people that meet the hurts or understands how the world is. No, we come across as disingenuous sales people pushing a product.  We come across as foreign aliens that do not experience the sufferings of lesser mortals.

I don't want to be that .

I don't want to be someone that isn't honest.
I don't want to be someone that refuses to relate to people.





I mean, after all, where would we be if the Savior couldn't relate to us. 


1 comment:

  1. Dude... I am speechless. How far are you through your book? Oh, and I love this new design. Much more... well, I don't know, but I like it more.

    xo,
    j

    ReplyDelete

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