Vulnerablity - living with unveiled faces

How do you all do with vulnerability? My job sometimes "requires" me to be vulnerable in front of a group of people and it is always a bit humbling. There is this tempatation to want to seem all together in every way. And yet... that just doesn't seem real to me. It's tough to show that you are human, that you have emotions... that life is not alway perfect... and yet isn't that the truth for all of us?

And yet, how often we hide our pain from each other.

If you read Exodus 34:29-35 it is the story of moses coming off the mountain and covering his face with the veil. Okay, go and read it, I will wait..."

You done?

Okay good.

Now, why did Moses cover his face? For the longest time I thought it was because Moses was such a holy guy and was glowing so much, that people couldn’t stand to see God’s glory. Like the brightness was too much for them and Moses was protecting them.

And that’s exactly what Moses wanted them to think.

But, Paul in 2 Corinthians 3:13, tells us what was actually going on. Moses meets God on Mount Sinai, gets the Ten Commandments-- comes back down, and his face glowed. His face was radiant. He’d been with God. And apparently, people were impressed by this. And word spread amongst the Israelites…Moses has a shining face. When people looked at him, they would say, “Wow! He is special. He’s radiant. He was close to God.”

And then one morning Moses woke up, and looked in the mirror while he was shaving or something. And he noticed that his face was not glowing quite so much as it had the day before. The glow was starting to fade. And he knew when people saw this; they would be a little less impressed with him. He wouldn’t be quite so special anymore.

So in 2 Corinthians 3:13, we are told that Moses put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at him while the radiance was fading away.

Isn’t that interesting? Paul tells us that he put a veil over his face because he didn’t want them to see that he wasn’t as radiant as he used to be. He wanted them to think that he was more spiritually radiant than he really was...

Paul goes on to say a wonderful thing. He goes on to say that, because we have the promise of God’s love and acceptance through what Jesus Christ has done for us, he says, “Therefore, we are very bold. We can live with unveiled faces”—no concealing, no masks, no hiding, no makeup. Before people -- and before God.

Do you live like that?

Where do you most struggle living with an unveiled face?

Where is everyone?

So I'm going around to my normal blog sites and no one is writing! What is up with this? (The exception is my hero mdog who always saying something insightful, strange or funny. Check her out.)

But I have not been the best at posting either... I REPENT! :OP

Holy, Holy, Holy...

Today was the "perfect parenting day." It was one of those days when my infant daughter was nothing but wonderful. She had been sick for the last 2 weeks, crying and screaming. The last 2 days she has really perked up. Today is was adorable. She was smiling and laughing and generally overall well..."cuteness defined"....

My wife went through some pretty severe depression during the final trimester of her pregnancy. At one point, when things looked pretty bleak, she had nothing less than a vision. (My wife is not a "vision of the day" type person, so this was pretty strange.) She was leading worship at a church and was doing the call to worship. Our daughter was 4 or so... and my wife asked her, "So what did all the animals around the throne say when they worshipped God?" And our daughter said, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is and is to come." That moment began to move my wife out of depression... it was a powerful image for us...

"...and a little child shall lead them."

From the first time I held her, I have been repeating that verse to her. That verse is life to me. And her reaction is always interesting... it brings her such peace. She often looks at me and smiles when I say it. Sometimes, the she looks so deeply into my eyes that it's almost like our souls intertwine...like there is a mystery we both share. It is one of the most powerful experiences I have ever had...

God is bigger than me. I don't understand Him. There is a mystery...