24.7.09

click flash


are you fat? are you lanky? do your ears stick out? is your hair going grey?

do you hide?

when people run around with a camera, are you the person who pretends it's not there, turns away; do you hide?

i know, i understand, i've been there, but who is it that you're hiding from? your own image of yourself in your head? do you think you're protecting your friends and family from what you really look like? do you think they don't know? don't love you exactly the way you are? what are you scared of? what is your deepest fear?

a long time ago, two others hid from the One who loved them. they were ashamed, they had realised just how exposed they were, how known they were. they saw that their brokenness was visible. and so they hid.

but this is where the lie is exposed. they couldn't hide. they did the human equivalent of sticking their heads in the sand. like children who cover their eyes and think they can't be seen.

you know, i meet so many people - sadly mainly women - who are paralysed by what they do or do not look like. who are obsessed by food - too much or too little. and who assign moral value to each mouthful. it's the culture we grow up in - and it is an extremely hard one to work against. especially if you feel like you wear your brokenness in full visibility of everyone else. too fat, too thin, too old, too geeky, too whatever.

but everyone is broken, and there is One to whom all our brokenness is fully known. and this One still loves us, calls us, gives us a purpose and a voice.

so my challenge to others out there - don't collude, don't hide, use your voice.

and most of all

say cheese.

3 comments:

Rev R Marszalek said...

This is excellent - thank you. I have felt some of my own insecurities healed through gospel -power.
Very encouraging stuff.

Have a fab down south New Wine!

Jody Stowell said...

and you up north!

lookingforlimerence said...
This comment has been removed by the author.