Transparency brings FREEDOM

I read on one of Seth Barnes blog’s about reasons why people leave the church. He talked about masks that people have on at church: he wrote, “People have had to step away from honest vulnerability in order to fit acceptability standards in the church.” And he wrote that vulnerability allows people to grow spiritually.

(Miles, me, and Taryn- as we head to church in Romania)

Vulnerability is a hard thing for me. I realized I had looked at it in the past as being weak, but it’s quite the opposite. Before I shared about my struggles with rejection with my squad, I shared some personal consequences of sin that I had dealt with, with my team.  After I shared with my team I felt so free- not weak but free. Honest vulnerability allows so much freedom and allows God to work in ways you might never know.

I realized rejection had also kept me from sharing struggles with others because I had a fear of being rejected if they knew the struggles I had.

But I was only kidding myself to think that no one else had dealt with similar feelings or had not realized they needed to deal with it. We are human- all of us- and when we wear masks we cut off God allowing us to be used by past experiences. And in the process we tie ourselves up in bondage of believing lies that we are the only person that deals with this, or that we should be ashamed or embarrassed because of weaknesses.

(Debrief- Anna and I last days in Africa)

And at the end of the Seth’s blog he asked numerous questions, one of which was, “Do people feel the need to keep their masks in place around me?”

If they do I feel that is something that I need to change about myself- I want to be transparent, honest, and vulnerable as God leads so others can feel free to be who God has created them to be around me.

And in the church we need one another desperately, we need encouragement, we need testimonies of what God has done, we need accountability, and we need transparency.

Be transparent as God leads and wait and watch to see HOW HE USES IT.