Being Real

As my husband and I were driving home this evening, I was lulled in to the beauty of the dark grey sky and thinking of how far God has brought me and how truly amazing He is. My husband turned the radio on and we tuned in to a Christian radio station which we hardly ever listen to. Two women’s voices floated across the airwaves. The guest on the show was a gospel singer who started sharing her testimony on the radio. She spoke about her divorce and how locked up she was in her own life. She shared that God convicted her about the walls she had around her and although she was involved in women’s ministry for many years, she was never truly real about her struggles or about the pain she was experiencing in her life. When she finally became real about her own pain in her own intimate times with God, she could start becoming real with others about it. Her story and her words really resonated with me because it is something that Father has shared with me in the past too but on a larger scale. He shared with me that women need to get real about themselves and about their lives. So many times because of our own hurt and mistrust, we struggle to connect with one another. Now I want to wave a flag of caution here as well, I do not think that you should share your troubles and sorrows that are intimate with everyone, I believe that only where God leads you should you share, but being real is another matter altogether. Being real is admitting to the good things and the bad things. It’s about being able to say – this was hard, or that was bad, or this is good or I am struggling in this place. It’s about being real about the good things too. It's bot about airing all the laundry, it's about being authentic and original.

There is an image that stayed with me from the very first time I saw the movie Frozen. It’s the image of Anna after her parent’s funeral. She is sitting on the one side of the door, while her sister Elsa is on the other side. Both are hurting. Both are scared but neither one can see each others pain or know each other’s fears, because they have locked each other out of their worlds. They are both stuck behind closed doors. But both are devastated. How can we reach out to one another if we cannot know each others pains? How can we expect others to help us if we won’t first let them in? Our hearts tell who we really are and only our hearts can tell the stories others do not see. Our hearts reflect our very beings and our hearts are often the very thing we have a problem showing.

Again, I am talking here about being real with others; I am not talking about sharing with everyone and leaving your heart unguarded, because the Bible tells us that we need to guard our heart before all things because it’s the source of life. We need to guard our hearts because many people wont understand what is inside, especially if you have walked a road of cost to get to where you are today, it’s not about being silly with it, it’s about being real. Stop pretending, stop telling lies about what you are hiding, stop trying to pretend you have the perfect world if your world is actually falling apart. Stop shrugging off your pain if you are really hurting and most importantly of all, stop being “un-real” with the One who made you. We often try so hard to keep it all together when God just sometimes needs us to be real; in fact He wants us to be real with Him all the time. He is not afraid of the pain or the shame, or the unforgiveness or the failure to change, He knows it all already. How awesome is that – and He stills accepts us nonetheless. I want to be real, I want to be the authentic me I was created to be. Realness is beautiful – we cannot hide behind our closed walls and unopened doors. Maybe you need to get real with your husband, or with your family, or with your neighbour or even your dog, whomever, wherever – let’s be real, let’s be authentic, stop trying to hide and let God come inside – be the real you, you have a story to tell that the world needs.

Shalom!