“Teacher,
which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus
replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with
all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and
greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your
neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these
two commandments” (Matthew 22:36-40 NIV).
We
tend to conceal two things about our character: the embarrassing
mistakes we’ve made and the personal needs that might make us
blush. Often the two are interlinked. Why do we feel so reluctant
to reveal these things?
Usually
it’s because we fear that by living more transparently, we become
vulnerable. Being honest about ourselves might make us
uncomfortable, so we tend to hide those things away. When we go to
church, we put on a happy face, or maybe a devout expression, to let
people know, “I am okay in the eyes of God. I’m not ashamed of
any of my habits, actions, or failures.”….
But
when Jesus walked by [the lady with the hemorrhage], she took a
chance. She revealed her most embarrassing secret to him. Jesus
rewarded her honesty and her faith, as he will reward yours. (Through
the Year with Jimmy Carter, p. 141).
My
friends, and I view all my readers as friends, we must finally come
to realize that we must be honest not only with God but with man. It
is simply not good enough to say “This secret is shared between me
and God.” I have said it before and I will say it again, the
dysfunction we see in our world today (and have seen from the days of
Eden) results from the belief that we must conceal the truth about
what we do and feel and wish to do.
We
must come to know and believe that deceit is of the devil and that
God stands for truth. Our fears are many. We fear that if we share
the truth, this will pose a threat to me or will be perceived as a
threat or some sort of solicitation. I repeat, this is NOT of God,
but is of the devil.
I
know you don’t want to hear me say this, but I must. We must be
candid regarding our sexual actions and desires from our earliest
days. The first thing applied after the fall was a fig leaf. That
must be the first thing to go if we are ever to see the prophecy come
to pass that “prisoners will be set free.” [The cowering
prisoners will soon be set free; they will not die in their dungeon,
nor will they lack bread. Isaiah 51:14 NIV]. Like it or not, a fully
abundant life will be based on the habit truth—not only about “high
and lifted up” matters, but about the ordinary. Until with the
grace of God the chains of taboos as subjects of discussion are
relegated to the scrap heap, our prisons will overflow with those who
are essentially innocent and addictions will enslave us.
Why,
after all these years, is it now possible to write what I just did?
Because in the fullness of time in America, through divine
inspiration, a group of believers penned the First Amendment. In the
United States one can speak without being tossed in jail or censored
(or in my case, not even fired). It is a country where love is
extensive and practically enforced. Let us commit to learn to trust
one another and in goodwill and without fear and within the love of
God continue to search for the truth not only among the stars but
among our innermost thoughts—let us truly become THE LAND OF THE
FREE, THE HOME OF THE BRAVE.
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