Being Naked
The idea of Naked tends to cause anyone to shift anxiously in their seat like Bob Slidell. We just don’t know what to do with it…it is the third rail of social taboos, at least in the U.S. Yeah, everybody has some friend who seems to be the extreme contradiction to this statement – the guy who just can’t seem to keep his clothes on. Even then, he’s just nude…not naked.
Being Naked takes more than dropping your clothes. There are plenty of married and unmarried couples that know how to drop their clothes, be nude in the other’s presence, but very few that are actually Naked with each other. Being Naked goes deeper than skin. It has to do with total disclosure. It is letting someone else know what it is you are really feeling about yourself, about them, about anything. It doesn’t take being married, or even having sex, to be naked with another human being.
Of late, God has been wooing me to be naked before him. At first, it sounds odd considering he is God and thus made the very cells that make up my flesh and bones. But then I am reminded that is just being nude. What he is asking is to be vulnerably honest with what I am feeling or thinking about anything… especially in regards to how I feel about myself, and about him. Yes, “feel”. And I am not just talking the cheese ball-swaying-hands-everything-is-great-jesus-nuts kind of thing. That is such a small part of anybody, and often just a facade.
This kind of Naked is a heart thing. This kind of Naked is about intimacy. Never did I think I would initially be wary to be so Naked before the one who made me. But I am human and to not be a little cautious would be something un-human. That doesn’t change the request he makes. This dive into a deeper level of intimacy, though, asks me to shed those ways I hold back and try to “clothe” myself.
As for what I find myself sharing in this nakedness I won’t say… it would be like a married couple sharing their most private conversations. I will tell this, though. I was surprised to find that one of the central things I held back saying to him is that I am scared to trust my heart. Why? Because when I do trust my heart it tends to get me in trouble. But I am quick to remember that I like getting into trouble. As it says in my last posts: “every uncertainty fraught with danger is so much more human”.
It seems as I let myself be that exposed to One who loves so much better than I understand, then I am more free to be so with the ones right next to me on the journey. As I become more comfortable with being naked on the inside, then I am much more comfortable in my own skin. Clothes on or off:)
Being Naked takes more than dropping your clothes. There are plenty of married and unmarried couples that know how to drop their clothes, be nude in the other’s presence, but very few that are actually Naked with each other. Being Naked goes deeper than skin. It has to do with total disclosure. It is letting someone else know what it is you are really feeling about yourself, about them, about anything. It doesn’t take being married, or even having sex, to be naked with another human being.
Of late, God has been wooing me to be naked before him. At first, it sounds odd considering he is God and thus made the very cells that make up my flesh and bones. But then I am reminded that is just being nude. What he is asking is to be vulnerably honest with what I am feeling or thinking about anything… especially in regards to how I feel about myself, and about him. Yes, “feel”. And I am not just talking the cheese ball-swaying-hands-everything-is-great-jesus-nuts kind of thing. That is such a small part of anybody, and often just a facade.
This kind of Naked is a heart thing. This kind of Naked is about intimacy. Never did I think I would initially be wary to be so Naked before the one who made me. But I am human and to not be a little cautious would be something un-human. That doesn’t change the request he makes. This dive into a deeper level of intimacy, though, asks me to shed those ways I hold back and try to “clothe” myself.
As for what I find myself sharing in this nakedness I won’t say… it would be like a married couple sharing their most private conversations. I will tell this, though. I was surprised to find that one of the central things I held back saying to him is that I am scared to trust my heart. Why? Because when I do trust my heart it tends to get me in trouble. But I am quick to remember that I like getting into trouble. As it says in my last posts: “every uncertainty fraught with danger is so much more human”.
It seems as I let myself be that exposed to One who loves so much better than I understand, then I am more free to be so with the ones right next to me on the journey. As I become more comfortable with being naked on the inside, then I am much more comfortable in my own skin. Clothes on or off:)