29 September 2013

Masquerade

Do you ever just want to get a few people together in the same room, and have everyone be totally honest and humble about something that has been going on for months or years? To let your walls down and have everyone else let theirs down too? To say what has been too long unsaid? To cry together? And to leave the room better for it?

You want to. You say you do, anyway!

But you don't.

You don't let your own walls down because you're afraid the others won't let theirs budge.

You don't say the unsaid because you're afraid you'll be the only one.

The risk of being misunderstood keeps you from trying to understand.

And you try to hold back the tears, at least in public, because you're too proud to admit things matter so much to you.

Why are we like this? Why do we keep guessing what the others feel without asking? What if we all misjudged each other? What if our fear and pride are keeping us from experiencing true community and sincerity?

What if silence isn't keeping others from being hurt, but actually hurting them?

What if our good intentions of not hurting others are just fear and avoidance all dressed up?

Where do you draw the line between self control and healthy expression of your emotions and opinions?

The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? --Jeremiah 17:9

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
--Psalm 139:23-24