Naked and Exposed

Life.

This is it people.

It is what you are doing right now.

Breathing, working, drinking coffee, doing laundry....
Studying, paying the bills, getting engaged, driving...
Laughing, loving, running, eating....
Crying, dying, hurting, hiding...
Searching...

At this moment we are all living.

How are you doing?

Fine?

The operative word of our day.

FINE.

Anything more than that response takes time, energy and strength...
Any other answer takes courage and humility... honesty and resolve...

Our days are full of activities.
Maintaining our worlds.
Supporting our choices and beliefs with actions.
This is what we do.
This is who we have become.
It's amazing how long we can go on... covered by our lives.
Shrouded in the everyday.
Wrapped up in motherhood, fatherhood...
The consummate employee...the daring adventurer
The responsible civil servant...the compassionate care giver...
Best Friend...faithful lover... responsible son or daughter...
It's all good.

When is the last time you really stripped it all away and stood naked?

When is the last time you came out from behind the mask...from behind the cardboard cutout of the moment...

Ever since the garden man has been well aware that nakedness is not something to aspire to.

We have dreams of being naked in a crowd.

We cover ourselves.

We are embarrassed....full of shame.

If we are honest ...not many of us can stand comfortably naked in front of ourselves...not to mention in front of anyone else.

Physically. Emotionally. Spiritually.

Bottom line.

We fear it.

What if they see that?
What if they notice that?
What if they realize that?

What if.

Then.

What???????

What?

What!!!!!!!!

What if they know?

God.

We spend entire lives covering ourselves.
Hiding our true natures...our true selves.
Our perceived flaws, warts, weaknesses...
All the time peering through the gloom at other's apparently un-hidible issues.

For instance: smoking, obesity, alcoholism and gambling...rage
Not easily hidden.

Others more easily masked: greed, selfishness, lust, envy, strife, pride....arrogance..lying.

Have you ever heard yourself say: "Well they made bad choices...so that's why they ended up in that situation. I made better choices so what I have God blesses...it's mine."

?????

Or... something like this: "They got themselves into this mess, they can get themselves out."

??????

I am sure glad God didn't think that way.

I was born with a high metabolism.
I never struggled a day in my life with my weight.
Until the last few years.
It is all relative.
I used to wonder how people ended up overweight.
Well...in some small part I now know.
Mix hard times...with depression...and more hard times....physical illness and inactivity..with aging...and a growing emotional attachment to my food for comfort... and there you have it.

What about money....
Possessions.
What about rage...
Manipulation.
What about status.
Position.
What about accumulation...
Ownership.
What about judgment...criticism...
Labeling.

Thank God he did not feel the same way about us as we do about each other.

It is 2008.

Isn't it time we got naked?

Truly.

The lie is that we have so much to lose.

All that we have.
Our reputations.
Our image.
Our stuff.
Our relationships.

I write from my life here.
I was done a long time ago with the mask.
I am far from finished.
I have lost relationships.
I have hurt people.
I have been injured.
I have systematically been stripping away...my leaves... while still attempting in some sort of feeble way to cover myself with my own hands or shadows.

I have help.

The One.

Who fashioned the first coverings... with sacrifice.
He is helping me.
Supporting me.
Surrounding me.
Empowering me.

One of my good friends has a son doing his DTS with YWAM in Hawaii. The group recently spend the night on a black volcanic sand beach. The wind was so high that they dug trenches and slept under the trucks. The next day their exposed skin was smooth like a baby's.

Sand...driven by wind....scours.

Nakedness is not comfortable.
Especially in this climate.

I refer to the climate of a society fraught with secrets...
...full of defense mechanisms brought on by fear, and a desperate drive to anesthetize our pain.

This is where we live.

When will we begin to really see the "LEAST OF THESE"... not as less than ourselves.. but as ourselves in any given moment????

When will we begin to LOVE God with all our hearts, souls, mind and strength...
AND....
Our neighbors as ourselves?

We can't yet.

We don't love ourselves.

We feed ourselves...we clothe ourselves...we accumulate..we are gluttons...we inoculate ourselves... we surround ourselves with comforts... we protect ourselves... and work our asses off securing our futures.

THIS IS NOT LOVE.

Love awaits.

Strip down.

Take it all off.

Let him help.

Step out of the shadows.

Take a deep breath.

Naked and exposed....you will never be the same.

Neither will your world.