Two-faced. Save face. Lose face. About face. Face-off. Face it.

So, you may notice a theme emerging above. This latest byte has been incubating ever since last summer, when someone else’s thought began to get a hold of mine. Then, last week, Steve talked about this EXACT thing. And so now it’s time for this lil’ byte to be born! Yep, I know. That’s a long time for a thought to grow. But don’t panic. This doesn’t mean it’s been doubling and tripling its size to epic proportions. -Atleast, I don’t think. Hmm. Let’s find out, shall we!

If you need your memory “jogged” (uh, hopefully it likes the exercise): a few Friday’s ago we had a talk about going deeper with God, and how one vital (maybe THE most vital) part of that is: personally being real with God.

That’s sort of a new thing to think about. We learn so much about God ‘s honesty with his people, and that we should seek to know him for real—who he REALLY is. And, along with that, we often talk about how he is a God who knows OUR very heart. Yet, despite all of this, how willingingly and how regularly, do we strip it all away and become completely–even painfully–honest with him? And real.

Maybe part of the problem is we get mixed up about what our “Real Self” actually IS. What Steve said was a helpful reminder: who we are is not ANY aspect of our earth-bound status or “identity” (popularity, etc., but even the talents we have; our various roles in other people’s lives; our successes/failures). God strips all of that away, so we should stop trying to hold on to it (or maybe hiding behind it?)

The idea of stark honesty is hard to grasp. The concept last summer that started all of this is STILL the best way I can get a sense of what it means. It’s from a short-ish novel aptly called “Till We Have Faces” by good ol’ C.S. Lewis(!). Near the end of the story the increasingly bitter main character goes before the “court of the gods” who her people follow, and accuses them of…oh, lots. And then she suddenly stops and realizes she has misunderstood everything:

“The complaint was the answer. To have heard myself making it was to be answered. Lightly men talk of saying what they mean… When the time comes to you at which you will be forced at last to utter the speech which has lain at the centre of your soul for years, which you have, all that time, idiot-like, been saying over and over, you’ll not talk about joy of words. I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer. Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?”

The best way to end this is with the passage that it all seems to come from, in 1 Corinthians. It shows this is not a new struggle: “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” (13:12) Just by being a human living on this earth, there’s all ready so much that prevents us from fully knowing and being known in our relationship with God. One day, when this life ends, we will know and be known with no barriers. But even here on earth–and all of our life—we have the choice before us to stop hiding or disguising ourself, and having a real relationship with God.