Warning: If this post offends you, it might just apply to you. Being offended isn’t bad, despite what society believes. Sometimes it’s a way that the Holy Spirit can get your attention, if you’re willing to listen. When I say “you,” I’m talking to my own heart as well.
Positive thinker. Happy. Joyful. Gleeful. Excited. Amazed. Trusting. Peaceful. Confident. Successful. Hopeful. Inspired.
Angry. Lonely. Fearful. Anxious. Depressed. Sad. Heartbroken. Jealous. Enraged. Stressed. Disgusted. Shameful. Condemned. Judgmental. Hopeless. Failure. Sinful. Imperfect.
Which group of words do you like more? Which do you choose to focus on in your life? If you’re like most of society, the answer is the first group. No one likes to admit their brokenness, sin, failures, and negative emotions. We all want to appear put-together, successful, and at peace. Most people are very good at playing the part, and have most of the other people convinced of the homeostasis in their lives. Some Christians are particularly good at exuding peace.
Some people truly are peaceful, laid back, not anxious, and trusting most of the time. Some have had relatively little trauma or difficulty in their lives. I’m glad that there are people who haven’t had a lot of bad things happen in their lives. However, a lot of the people who claim to not have had anything bad happen are also really good at ignoring the second set of words above. They specialize in compartmentalizing their emotions and experiences. They like to sweep difficulty under the proverbial rug and leave it there to rot, rather than doing the hard work of dealing with it and getting it out of the house. Out of sight, out of mind is their life theme. There are problems with this approach to life and dealing with emotions.
It usually means you’re pretending to be someone you’re not. You’re an imposter. You’re a hypocrite. You know the gospel in your intellect, but you have never given Jesus your entire heart, truly. You’re trying to “act your way into a new way of thinking” instead of holding Jesus’s hand as you walk into a new way of being.
You expect others to be put together, so when you discover that they’re not, you freak out a bit and feel threatened in your own false sense of security. You avoid those people. You only talk about the weather or the sports teams. You ask “Hi-how-are-you-that’s-great” as you pass in the hall at church. You raise your hands in worship while inside your heart is sinking. You put on the pretty porcelain face to conceal the heart that is breaking in two.
You can’t really help others when you’re stuck in the surface orbit. You can’t go deep sea diving, down to repair the pain underneath the surface with those who are drowning, when you can’t even peek under the surface of the ocean to face your own pain. Therefore, you can’t bring the true healing of Jesus to the sinking world around you.
You don’t understand grace. As much knowledge as you have about God and the Bible, you can’t quite grasp that concept of grace in your heart of hearts. If someone asks you if you’re going to Heaven when you die, you might tell them, “Well I hope so. I’ve certainly tried to be a good person in my lifetime.” You live by the law of sin and death, and not by the freedom and forgiveness of Christ. You get your underpants in a knot when you think about abortion, gay marriage, women in the ministry, sex trafficking, vaccines (or lack thereof) and other hot topic subjects and sins in society. Sinners are guilty and need to be told as much, you think. Forget love, grace, and forgiveness.
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:2-39 ESV
Transparent Graces 