GET REAL

Our pastor has been urging our church to "get real" with one another, to stop hiding behind the masks, and to really let others into our REAL world.

Yesterday our Sunday School class (aka Connecting Points class) learned that a former member of our class had taken his life on Saturday night. His death was like a kick in the stomach for those in our class who knew him. No one could understand how this could happen. One said "I know he had at least 100 people that he could have called for help, and I am one of them". But...sadly he did not call. Why? Because it would have meant being real and not many want to do that.

Why do you think that is? I pondered that yesterday.

I believe it is because most adults carry with them a load of baggage brought with them from childhood and added to as they move throughout their adult lives. Hurts, offenses, wounds so deep that they have never spoken of them to a living soul, and wouldn't dare.

Max Lucado wrote a childrens book called YOU ARE SPECIAL. In this book, the lead character, Punchinello, can never earn a gold star, but instead only receives gray dots every time he messes up. He is covered with the dreaded gray dots! Soon he is so weighted down with the dots that he is totally hopeless.

Our churches are full of Punchinellos, all weighted down with their own personal load of gray dots. The dots have been accumulating since childhood. Some dots are larger than others. Some weigh more. Some people have more dots than others and those who have the most sometimes just can't bear the weight of those dots any more.

The only difference in us and Punchinello is that his dots are visible, ours are not. Most adults carry their dots in total silence. Oh they may reveal one or two, just so that others know a little about them. Or, if they feel really safe in a Bible study or class, they might even reveal a few really weighty ones. But no one ever reveals them all.

In Punchinello's case, however, he found a solution. The solution was found in a visit to the woodcarver. The woodcarver had created Punchinello. He loved him. When Punchinello realized that the only one that really mattered was the one who had created him, the horrid dots began to fall away. One by one as he received the woodcarver's love, the dots began to disappear. As he basked in the love and care of the kind woodcarver, he found that the dreaded dots that were hurled at him from others no longer stuck. Why? Because now he lived not to please his fellow townspeople who really didn't care about him anyway, but he lived to please the woodcarver and him alone.

God is our creater...our "woodcarver". He alone knows us totally. He knows it all! There is nothing that is hidden from him. We are fearfully and wonderfully made and while we were "yet in secret" He knew us. So with him we can shed our masks. We can "get real" with God! Stop pretending. He is not impressed or fooled. You may not get real with another living soul, but you can get real with Him. And I guarantee you if you do, if you pour your heart out to Him, He will be there, He will help you, He will give back to you what the dots have robbed you of. He will love you unconditionally and forever !

So....what are you waiting for? GET REAL with God today!