Transparency

So, I was reading a blog the other day, and in one of the author's recent posts she poses the question of whether or not people's lives are as perfect as their blogs seem to make them out to be. It was interesting for me to read this, because I myself have pondered the same question numerous times. Of course, my most sincere hope is that people are able to find contentment in their lives and their circumstances, but lets face it...sometimes, that's hard.

I tend to be an overly transparent person. If someone asks me how I'm doing that day, I tend to be honest; "well, so and so, today I'm really struggling with patience/forgiveness/gossip/etc, etc." Naturally, I will sometimes give the "right" answer of, "oh fine, and you?" but for the most part, I really value honesty and transparency. I tend not to invest much time or energy into relationships that I feel are surface-y or shallow, perhaps even to a fault. I just really enjoy the intimacy that comes with having a relationship with someone who loves you despite yourself and all of your flaws and is willing to get their hands dirty in your messes...because let's be honest, life is messy.

Life is messy and full of drama. If there is no drama in your life, then you either have no authentic relationships or you are a vegetable. If you really have found a way to become numb to the issues that surround us day in and day out just because we live on this earth amongst people, than I would say that you're missing out on some incredible opportunities to love and grow.

As much as we all want happiness in our lives; as much as most of us value that image in our minds of skipping through fields of wildflowers in long flowing dresses with perfect bodies and dewy skin and the cheeriest of dispositions at all times...it's not real. Life is messy. And the end goal of life is not that we were insanely happy or that everything in our lives fit nicely into a cute little box and had it's perfect place on a neatly dusted shelf, the end goal of life is to find contentment in our Maker even despite the mess. The end goal of life is Holiness. And to get there, we have to go through some valleys and fires and messes.

So today, in this post I want to say a BIG thank you to the people in that God has put in my life to help me get through my messes. The people who haven't been afraid to be honest with me and who have listened with patience and graciousness as I revealed the innermost workings of my heart to them. To the people who have loved me despite myself and my mess.