To be honest, I don’t really like being Naked. If you are naked, you are completely bare and bareness invites onlookers to sit, stare, and gape at your nakedness while judging all the parts of you that you are simultaneously wishing were covered and not out there for the world to see.
We’ve all had that dream, right? That one where you show up to class or work and you conveniently forgot to wear clothes…that moment you suddenly realize you are an idiot and are exposed and you feel like you could die of embarrassment. Embarrassment-just break that word down if you will, it says it all in this situation.
I guess I’m just acknowledging the fact that I’m afraid of being exposed. I think we all are. And it’s kind of crazy, because in all of our piousness, pride, and concern with being accepted and not being too different from others – Jesus actually calls us to strip off all of these things and ideas that hold us back from Him and to boldly proclaim, “This is who I am. Jesus created me, Jesus loves me. He wasn’t too ashamed to come down and be stripped, beaten, and abused to save me and I’m not going to be ashamed of me either. Because Jesus loves me. And that’s something unbelievably huge.”
God created us naked; before the fall we roamed the garden – hearts free and souls bared.
Then Satan entered, tempted us into sin and we have been grasping at fig leaves to mask our shame ever since. God stepped in and provided temporary clothing, atonement in the form of sacrifices until the time came for Jesus to step off His thrown, and personally provide eternal atonement with His own flesh and blood. He restored us to Himself…to unashamed, unabashed, glorious, free nakedness.
In joy of the victory God had provided and given to the Israelites, King David danced naked before the Lord – He was honoring God by baring Himself of the dignity, honor, and prestige of his royal position and cast his crown and clothing at the feet of his deliverer, his Almighty God. David recognized that Jesus is worthy of worship that requires everything from us…laying down pride, vanity, power, prestige, position, identity, etc. God calls David a man after His (God’s) own heart; God loved that David undignified himself by throwing off the things that hindered him from following Him.
The World Race is intense. It’s kind of scary. I’m leaving behind everything and everyone I know, all the comforts of my home, my job and that secure feeling a paycheck provides in knowing that you can pay your bills that month-and that’s all crazy just to get up and walk away from. But the scariest, most terrifying thing for me about this journey is baring my soul on this blog and putting my true thoughts and self out there for you all to see – to accept or judge and reject as you see fit. A big part of me would rather cliff dive into chummed up water filled with massive great white sharks, just waiting for a tasty white girl like me to come along.
A different part of me is truly excited in the freedom that is going to come from being naked before the Lord. Partial nudity just won’t due.
I’m supposed to keep these posts at a short-ish length so people won’t tune out and stop reading (if all the naked talk hasn’t turned you off already), so let me just leave you with this segue into my next post: Before Jesus restored us to nakedness, He had to die for us. He says we have to die too before we can stand bare and unashamed before God.
