Lighter still

I spent some time recently caught up in myself and unwilling to do the one thing that God had been calling me to do... To get completely honest with people around me and with myself.

I never really noticed how much we all hide, at least I know I do... I have been hiding and practicing lies since birth but I speak specifically about after my salvation. When recalling stories before my friends I always leave out the things that I find humiliating and exaggerate the things that I believe made me look tougher or more masculine.

For example I often have no problem telling people about the many fights I have been involved in. The problem comes when I know I am called by God to be honest, to say that I was scared to death of fighting, rarely ever did, and when I did I was forced. I try to protect my old image all of the time.

I am coming to realize that as long as we protect this old image, a piece of us holds on to it, building and strengthening it, keeping us from walking fully in our new man. When someone protects the old image or gives it power, what they are doing is giving it means to survive and until we get truly, deeply, and painfully honest with each other and with the Father, this "old man" nature WILL survive.

I encourage you all to get real. Find someone to lay it all out to, and I mean everything. No longer defend or glorify that beast that lives within but instead strangle it with the very light of our Lord. Stop letting IT strangle YOU.

So I leave you all with a question I was asked that has changed my life. Have you ever been truly, deeply free and unhidden?..... If no then why not?....