Diaphanous

honesty

I grew up learning that "honesty is the best policy". I still believe this! But I want to look at this word a little bit differently from what is traditional. First let me define "honest".  According to Dictionary.com "honest" means being honorable in principles, intentions, and actions; upright and fair. It also means being genuine or unadulterated. Sticking to principles and being genuine about those principles. Hmmm....





walls

I love the song, "If We're Honest" by Francesca Batistelli. The very first words to the song are,

"Truth is harder than a lie, The dark seems safer than the light"

I encourage you to listen to the whole song. It talks about how we like to hide because we are so messy inside. It states that we build walls so that no one can get through. And I agree! We hide what is inside and keep out what is perceptively hurtful. I think that everybody is tempted to build walls around themselves. It is human nature. The walls are about protection. We could talk about all sorts of different walls. One kind of wall, I think, that we, as Christians, tend to be all about is looking "as if". Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't it seem like we spend tons of energy keeping what's "messy" inside the walls?

being honest

So what does it mean to be honest then? In the context that I want to talk about, it means allowing people around you to see the REAL you. The person whom God created you to be. The unique and specially called you. But that "you" has been plastered with the ugliness and mud of sin. And we all know that about ourselves, whether we readily admit it or not. This is really the problem. How truthful are we about this ugliness inside of us? To be honest really does mean that we not lie to ourselves about the core of sin that deeply resides in us.




Be Separate

The principles of the world teach us to "look strong", "be tough", "be proud", "don't show your emotions", "don't reveal the soul". Here's a hard question (answer honestly): Do you really see a difference in how most Christians handle themselves from the people in the world? Generally speaking, I don't. I mean, this isn't a complete shame on the Church because we mature according to the pace of the Spirit of God. But, we do bear responsibility to a degree because if we hide who we are from the Spirit of God, then there is no growth or maturity in that. It really is no wonder why the world gets confused by the behavior of Christians. Honestly, the two do LOOK too much the same. I look too much the same! Not, mind you, that we are the same. Because, in reality, we are holy, we are washed, we are redeemed! In fact, the Spirit of the Living, One True God lives in us!




transparency

Does the Bible teach us to be strong? Well, Joshua was told to be "strong and courageous". But where did his strength come from? Paul tells us:

"My grace is sufficient for you, for power (strength) is perfected in weakness" 2Corinthians 12:9

It isn't our strength. It is the strength of God. Paul did not bluster on about how strong he was. But Paul did boast about his weaknesses. Just like Paul, we are weak too and we are broken...every human being is broken. It is natural to put up walls to hide our weakness... our brokenness. But, we aren't supposed to do what is natural. Not only did Paul not hide his weaknesses....he wore his weakness on the outside. Not only did he not hide it, he proclaimed it! In case I am not making this clear enough, Paul knew how to let those walls come crashing down and allow people to see his ugliness. Guess what else happens when we become so transparent that our weaknesses are found out....Christ in us is found out as well.

a testimony to healing

I had a dream when my son was 3 years old, that we lived in a glass house. Every person that drove or walked by could see what was happening in my house at any given moment. I felt both joyful and exposed when I woke up. I have never forgotten that dream nor how I felt when I woke up because I knew it was from the Lord. I believe that Lord was telling me that someday, I would no longer try to hide behind walls. Someday, I would allow myself to be seen. Someday, the  duplicity would be less. Praise God that even through my stubbornness, the Lord has not relented in His promise to me. I find that the road is challenging and painful, at times. The pain is beneficial and I now clearly see this. Somewhat like having a wound cleaned out. I had to give permission for the cleaning to begin. I had to come to realize that the pain is for my good and the glory of God.   

About the word "diaphanous"

The word came about around 1200...originally meaning "exempt, free from guilt".  Later it came to mean "sheer or sparse".  Eventually, the meaning evolved to "translucent, pure, unmixed".    In this definition there is the idea of  "very steep" with the notion of "continuing on without halting". 

                -excerpts from Online Etymolgy Dictionary.  www.etymonline.com

What an apt word.  I could not have invented my own word that would have better described the concept here. Truly we are "exempt and free from guilt".   Are you willing to take the next steps, to be "sheer, sparse, translucent or pure"? Will you be "unmixed" with the world?  Are you willing to climb the "very steep" path and "continue on it without halting"?  The Lord is ready and waiting to take you on this adventure.

Thoughts about Truth

I was finally able to access my blog.  Boy, have I missed blogging. But I finally got in!

I have been thinking much lately about how I allow the truth to affect my decisions.  I have also been thinking much about truth and my identity and how they play out together in my actions.   What do I think about most of the time?  In who and what do I find my identity?  How do I define myself?  How does what I think about play into who I am?  As a Christian, I am told in numerous passages that my identity can be found in Christ.  Here is my favorite one:

Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.  Colossians 3:2

ONTRUTH

Indeed, a child raised in a Christian home is hopefully taught truth while they are young.  This is what most every Christian couple hopes to do for their children.  An excellent goal but here is a something to keep in mind.  A question:  Even if one grows up in a Christian home where the Bible is taught and truth discussed regularly, will that person still end up with a plethora of lies rolling around in their head into adulthood?  I think the answer is yes.  Why?  Because we are fallen sinful creatures who, in our flesh, would rather believe a lie than the truth.  Not only this, but as Christian parents we cannot always play interference with the multitude of hidden and private thoughts and perceptions that our children think about and adopt all by themselves. Just as our parents could not do so adequately for us, Christian or not.  AND... there is no such thing as a perfect parent so we will inevitably instill false beliefs into our child's brain.  Praise God that the Word of God can supersede the mistakes of any parent. And if you know, all too well, how many mistakes you made and struggle with it, you can know this:   There is grace for you!   Because the reality is,  regardless of parenting skills, children grow up and develop poor thought processes all by themselves too.  But I am not a fatalist! 

It is a good thing that children are taught a foundation of truth because  as they grow and mature the truth can deter some temptations for wrong thinking and it could eventually replace those deep-seated wrong beliefs that were adopted despite mom and dads best attempts.   Then, as an adult, the child that was given a strong Biblical foundation will, hopefully, have an easier job of recognizing and tossing out the lies.  Lies that were not taught to them as a child but inevitably come up in a life of living in a dirty world.    But even then, despite best attempts, regardless of the excellent foundation given them,  a lie or two or a thousand may sneak in.   All this to say,  I am not, you are not, our children are not immune to the effects of living in a fallen world.  Nor are any of us capable of peeling off the flesh that we must live with.  A fleshly tent that is at enmity with God.

BUT (love that word!), there may be some things that can take place to lessen the impact of living in this tent and living in this world.  I can't name them all but here is one that might get you going in your own thinking. One thing that is good, all the time, and I do mean ALL THE TIME is to be watchful and constantly mindful of  the existence of imbalance.  In other words,  how much "thought fodder" is being downloaded into the brain?   Another good question to ask oneself:  Is the Word of God taking precedence above the worlds offering of information?  This doesn't mean that a person would have to read more of the Bible than what they take in of other stuff. Ideally speaking, that certainly would be the choice.  Factually speaking, because we don't live in an ideal world, it isn't practical or possible.   I think it is more about how we intake information.  It also has to do with what we do with the information.  If I am reading the news, it certainly should not take the same place in my heart and in my mind as the Bible.  I would even venture to say that all information should be filtered through the truth of God's word...and maybe this isn't extremely practical advise but enough to work out a system of your own.   I suppose a good indicator of how we are processing information could be about what we think about the most...true in some instances but not necessarily always true. Perhaps it has more to do about what happens in our thinking when certain events take place in our life.   I think the goal would be to have words of truth readily available when a complicated or painful event takes place.  Better said, having the truth of God's word laying fresh on the mind for easy access at all times is the ultimate goal.  I learned along time ago to keep my keys in the same place everyday.  Is the truth of God's word placed in a high priority position where I don't have to dig for it too?  We are in the age of grab and go. Is the Word of God, packaged up nicely and laying conveniently in the reasoning center of the brain? Has the reasoning center of the brain been programmed with truth?  Maybe it was programmed well in childhood but has that programming continued into the adult years? In short, the truth needs to be fresh in the heart and mind so that I can apply it to situations and to information.  Keeping in mind that because of our current fallen state, truth is contrary to everything that onslaughts us.  It is and will remain to be so, until Christ returns, difficult and challenging to keep the truth forefront in our lives.  It is hard-work to maintain a proper thought life.  

I have hidden Your Word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Psalm 119:11