This past summer, I had the blessing of working at my favorite place in the world, as a camp counselor. This summer specifically, I counseled teenagers all summer. At the beginning of each week, I would sit down with all the girls of the program and talk with them about the expectations for the week. I would go over what our schedule looked like from day to day, told them not to flirt and how to dress appropriately. All things I took very seriously. However, there was a specific part of this talk I truly enjoyed and that was mentioning the word “raw.”
Raw. Three letters with a profound and gruesome visual. I spoke about how this word was a beautiful way to describe the week ahead of them. “Raw” because they would be stripped of their comfort. Now this comfort depends upon the individual: friends, a screen, makeup, sleep, control. God strips us each of the necessary item in order for his word to penetrate our hardened hearts. I got many reactions: Some confused, some afraid, some emotional. Each reaction is expected.
I love the word “raw” because it is never safe. Raw means that we are stripped of our identity. Raw means that our true heart is visible. Raw means that there is an enormous amount of room for God to move within.
Our raw state is a place where the true love of God is able to penetrate even the hardest of hearts. It drives strong emotion and leaves us exhausted. Our raw state allows us to indulge in the person Jesus asked us to be. Raw is good.
God’s love is raw. His love is not safe. It is unconditional, ever pursuing, always sacrificing. It was the raw body of Jesus that hung on a cross to make a payment for our choices. It was the raw body of Jesus that was set inside a grave, only to leave empty three days later. He sets the example for the life we have been called to: sacrificial, resurrecting, raw.
C.S. Lewis says, “Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal.” But God gives us his whole heart.
We experience the raw self we were called to be when we LOVE as we are LOVED.
My heart is raw. As I walk life with friends, learn about Christ’s love for me and prepare for the journey of the World Race ahead, I find myself constantly being stripped of my pride and left raw for Jesus to do a work in.
But this is what I asked for. This is the prayer I pray. That God would search my heart and reveal the sin within me (Psalm 139). That he would create a new heart within me (Psalm 51). And that he would allow me to feel the frailty of human love, to experience the power of his love.
These prayers have resulted in some of the hardest and most painful conversations. Because when we are confronted with our raw self, we are met by the grace and love of Jesus. Here, in our unsafe and uncomfortable state, is where the love of Jesus takes root in our hearts, because it does not have the distractions we place through comfort or worldly happiness.
This weekend, I am left raw by some hard and emotional conversations. But I have also been met, once again, by the forgiveness and love of Jesus. I invite you to live raw: to live life with honesty always on the tip of your tongue, to be confronted by the fact that you may be wrong, to be aware of your destruction, and, ultimately, to experience the unfailing love of your Savior, Jesus Christ. For this is the rich journey you have been called to walk.
