What kind of person do I most aspire to be? Someone who is always true to Jesus. That, I believe, is the race marked out for me. Or, the the words of the apostle Paul, I see it as “that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”
From notes in my journal, this is the last of five propositions I drafted for myself to define what that means. It’s been my hope that you might find something in these propositions helpful as you too seek to grasp that for which Christ Jesus took hold of you.
So number 5 is, that I want to live before Jesus and others in total transparency. That is, I want to be instantly dismissing all thoughts, motives, impulses, decisions, or reactions I would not like streamed to a Jumbotron on my front lawn for others to see exactly what’s going on in me at any given moment of the day, as well as streamed to a 13” TV screen hanging from my neck whereby anyone around me can see what’s on my heart at any time. (Anything instantly waved off is cut from the stream as being merely temptation.)
- Romans 12:17 — “Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.”
- 1 John 4:20 — “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.”
- Here’s the principle: the transparency we may think we have before God is no more than the transparency we live out before others.
- In other words, are we really living honestly before our unseen God if before the people we see everyday we are hiding stuff or doing things that require stealth?
- Are we really opening up and confessing to God that which we would want to make sure no one else knows about?
- James 5:16 — “…confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” The context is regarding physical healing, but surely extends to the healing we often need in other areas of our lives as well.
- Transparency invites God’s healing touch where it is most needed in the interests of not only physical relief but spiritual freedom.
