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Thursday 16 March 2006

learning to be real

I made it to Prague. :-)

Okay... the title.. learning to be real. What is real? I know that this is something I will probably relearn and learn more about all my life. The latest installment? A wise woman told me yesterday that being okay with sadness and hurt makes us more beautiful and more real. (my paraphrase) That stuck with me on the plane ride to Prague...

So I have been looking at what it means to feel alone in the midst of a group of people who love me. And how sometimes that is just the way it is. It is times of aloneness that draw me closer to the Lord and make me more aware of His beauty in my life.

I think I am seeing what it means to find beauty in the intermingling of joy and sorrow, beauty and sadness, pain and laughter, tears and gladness. ... strange and yet beautiful. And being real means that there is not a need to cover up who we are to those we meet.

One of my newer friends made a statement that I seem very open. I have to say that struck me too... cause I have always wanted to be open and vulnerable but I don't like to be hurt. Praise the Lord for His work in my life that I can be less afraid to be open, vulnerable and real.

Anyway... just a bit of my thoughts today as I sit in a Prague cafe with my dear friend Bekah.

7 comments:

  1. Appreciate you dear Sis!! Thanks for sharing your thoughts..

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  2. On your thoughts of being real, I've been thinking of that very idea lately too. We've been talking about being more real in our high school bible study, but what does that really mean and what does it look like? Sometimes I think it just becomes a catch phrase and that gets kind of annoying. People throw it around and then don't really do anything to implement it. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, that is part of being real. Something I think I probably need to work ona bit more. :)

    Have fun hanging with Beks!

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  3. oh, how I would love to be with you both ... it's a dreary Oregon morning, and I'm sitting in my little yellow office imagining you both hanging out and laughing. I pray that this would be a refreshing time for you, my friend.

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  4. I second Kristin, although I am not in a yellow office, still white (betcha could've guessed that huh Mel?) I do wish somehow to be in that cafe in Prague visiting with each of you...

    ~T

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  5. I wonder if you sometimes have been privy to the conversations I have had lately? Or is it just all of a sudden hitting us deeply because we were intended for such a deep relationship with God, but long for that physical side of it here. He is the One who knows us so well, even when we don't show it to others. He is the One who allows us to be, and He is the One constantly loving me even when I feel alone. If not for our own comfort it is this need to be real (yes vulnerable) and to share our lives together, even unhappy, sad, messy unperfect lives. I thought of a title for a book of my life when I was on a retreat a couple of weeks ago: Walking around in Cinderella's slippers. The thing is that we all want to be like Cinderella when she is fixed up by her fairy god mother and gets a great dress, freedom from slavery, a kicken ride, and the prince to dance with all night, but we all live in hope of that perfection. Going back and forth it seems. It also seems that God calls us in the midst of this to be servants. To really serve, but we never want to be treated like these servants like Cinderella was treated. Now, don't get me wrong I am not saying that everyone needs to trade in their clothes for rags, but it does say a lot about our perspective. If you want to be perfect and people only see this will they like the step mother make you a slave or like the prince will he enjoy both - your good side forward and your bad. Hm. I think God does this with us all and surprises us with people who stay and love us even when they see that we don't deserve our love because we are just stinky servants, but our love is greater than that because the One we serve is Greater!

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  6. Yes, on the back side of the desert we are the most real. With or without fellow-travelers we climb the walls of the canyon to get up where we hope there will be a view of something different or someone different, like green grass that feels good to our feet.
    If there are fellow-travelers we may choose to lend a hand which is being the servant as Jesus calls us. And you know, we have seen several of those canyon walls over the years. I thank God for the reality of HIS cool water of refreshing from the great heat of the canyon...and the HAND of a friend extended to help. I love you so much! You have extended your hand and your words of comfort and cheer to many! May the Lord give you sweet comfort.MoM

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  7. Thanks for sharing, Melissa. It is always such a treat to catch a glimpse of your heart! I hope the Lord helps all of us learn to be real - it is certainly a challenge at times in cultures that seem to bask in unreality as a way of life. Love you, my friend, and am praying for you as always.

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