When I started this blog, it was with the purpose of allowing others the opportunity to peek into my soul as I journey through life. Transparency in my writing is the foundation of my blog posts in a world that’s culture encourages just the opposite.
Early this year I wrote about transparency in my daily journal. This is what I wrote.
What does it mean to be transparent? It’s being honest with our struggles and triumphs, allowing others the opportunity to encourage and celebrate with us. It makes us stronger. However, there is risk involved, our motives and character may be judged, and it might hurt. Yet to not be transparent creates a false image of who we are and denies others the chance to learn from our mistakes, challenges, and victories. It also creates an atmosphere where we must constantly perform in word and deed to keep up the image that we want to portray to friends, acquaintances and even family. Perhaps this is why mental illness is at an all-time high. With social media having become our “fellowship around the table”, it’s easy to appear to be what we deem is a person worthy of honor.
There is also the subject of trust. If we have no relaitonship through experiences and communication, then other’s judgments are derived from their own personal experiences. When are we transparent and when do we remain silent, and just how much do we let people see into those gaurded places of our heart? If the other person has no personal investment in our lives than then we allow them glimpses of the traits and character that makes us unique. However, if they do, we must search our own hearts why we choose to remain silent about our deepest struggles and hard won victories. How do we see ourselves and how are we trying to portray ourselves to others? Do we like ourselves enough to be okay with what we see? If so, then transparency is natural. It’s when we are not okay with who we see when we look at ourselves that we begin the cycle of creating a false image that can’t be maintained without setting ourselves up for crisis. Why would we not like ourselves? Almost always, we have believed a lie spoken or perceived, by others or ourselves.
I wrote this at a time when we had recently sold our home, left Texas, traveled across country, and moved into a small apartment in Arkansas. I was struggling with other’s opinions of our decisions while making the most of the season we were in, which was both difficult and wonderful at the same time. I wanted others to rejoice with us! Not everyone did. In the coming days I will bring the reader along with me as I process through a new boundary event in my life that has abruptly changed the direction I have been going and my plans for the near future. I have hit pause on the video of my lifeline to reevaluate my desires and look at what is important to me. Being transparent with my life has taken on a whole new meaning.
“Love the one in front of you.” Is a motto of Mozambique missionary, Heidi Baker that I embrace as my own. This morning as I reflect, I have added a whole new layer to loving the one in front of you. It’s seeing the one in front of you as well. Seeing their gifts, talents, their uniqueness. Loving the one in front of you is not just serving and caring.
We must truly see others, to be truly seen by others. We must trust others, to be trusted with the intimate parts of peoples lives. Sometimes being transparent may not always turn out as we expect, but the times of healing and refreshing it could bring are worth the risks. Each of us has something that no one else has. When we share, we become stronger. May I see and be seen, and may my transparency make me stronger and help me to truly love the one in front of me.
