The Plumbline

A smart man makes a mistake, learns from it, and never makes that mistake again. But a wise man finds a smart man and learns from him how to avoid the mistake altogether.  (Roy H. Williams) Count yourself lucky, how happy you must be— you get a fresh start,  your slate’s wiped clean.  Count yourself lucky— God holds nothing against you  and you’re holding nothing back from him.  When I kept it all inside,  my bones turned to powder,  my words became daylong groans.  The pressure never let up;  all the juices of my life dried up.  Then I let it all out;  I said, “I’ll come clean about my failures to God.”  Suddenly the pressure was gone— my guilt dissolved,  my sin disappeared. (Psalm 32:1-5) I don't want anyone to feel they are alone in their mistakes - heaven knows I have made more than my fair share and I am not finished living yet! We are supposed to learn from those mistakes, though. How many times have you and I made ...

Do you remember that old time game of hide and seek? All the kids in the neighborhood would gather together, then we'd pick someone to be the 'seeker' and all the rest of us would dash hither and yon in hopes of finding that perfect hiding spot so we would go undiscovered until we heard the loud cry of "All come free!" hollered across the yards. The one who had the task of seeking had to explore all the nooks and crannies, under objects, behind them, and even inside of them. We'd scamper up trees, nestle back inside a bushy hedge, or scramble into an empty box beside the house. All of this was in the hopes of not being found by the one doing the seeking. I wonder how many of us think God is the one 'hiding' while we are the ones doing the seeking? We may even be at the point in our lives where we feel like we need to call out, "All come free!", simply because we have been seeking way too long and been totally unable to find what it is we are...

When God asks us to lay ourselves bare before him, he is actually telling us we need to be totally and completely exposed to him.  At first, this seems a little disconcerting to most of us because we are not used to exposing ourselves! We live life kind of "covered up", don't we?  In fact, there are even some of us who will even struggle to be totally exposed in the safety and security of our own homes!  Why?  It brings us to the level of being left without anything to hide behind and that is uncomfortable for some.  The hardest lesson for us to learn sometimes is the one of trusting God not to laugh at or mistreat our "nakedness" before him.  I don't mean this in a crass sense, but a nakedness of emotions, thought, and even our will.  When we are THAT transparent that he can see beyond all our attempts to hide our true feelings, tumultuous thoughts, and battle of the will, this is the place where we can truly begin to heal from those things...