Share It or Hide It?

Sometimes when I write I find it easy to talk about things from a distance. Under the guise of not getting too personal in my writing. I can begin to talk theoretically about things.

Usually, I know the truth of what I'm saying, because I have lived it to some degree before. But I'm playing it safe by not getting personal. It makes it easier to not get hurt.

But I'm realizing that I learn from real life stories - from times the writer takes a chance and shares something a little bit personal. A writer that allows me into their life is one who can change the way I see or think about someone. They're the ones I keep on reading.

When we share things that are personal, we provide other people the opportunity to hurt us with that information. But if we don't ever put ourselves in this position, we get lonely. We isolate ourselves and then we wonder why we feel so alone.

Obviously, we can't share everything with everyone. We need some boundaries in place. But sometimes we go beyond reasonable boundaries and share nothing at all which isolates and restricts us from really living.

So we have to learn to take a chance with people.

To share things with them from our lives.

Ultimately, we're taking the chance of getting hurt. But if we've taken time to develop friendships and trust with people, we've hopefully shared with people who won't hurt us with what they've just heard.

Here

This post should have been posted on Friday as part of Five Minute Friday, seeing as the word for this past Friday was "here". But it wasn't written then, so I share it now.


Driving towards a familiar place. One of my favourite places to spend time.

A place filled with memories.

Friendships formed here.

Friendships strengthened here.

Challenged in my walk with God here.

Many important lessons learned here.

Retreats and summer camp. I've spent lots of time here.

Turning down the dirt road that takes me here. It feels the same as it always has. But something also feels different this time.

I'm looking forward to being here again. But I'm also a little unsure of why I'm here this time.

This retreat won't be exactly the same as all the others I've been to here. I've been told that by others - by their stories from these retreats.

But, I know that God has told me I'm supposed to be here this weekend. God has a reason for me being here.

A couple days later, I head back out on the same dirt road. Leaving now.

I know why God had me here.

He had something for me here.

I was here to meet with Him. And now I'm leaving changed.

How Do You Approach God?

How do you approach God?

Do you come running and excited to see him?

Or are you hesitant to approach God?

As I was driving home from my church tonight I was thinking about this. As I did, God brought a picture to mind and used it to remind me of something important.

I was reminded of something from when I was a kid. When my sisters and I were little, the sound of my Dad coming in the back door when he got home from work each day, caused us to stop everything we were doing. We ran to see Dad. He didn't get far into the house before the three of us were right there.

As I was remembering this, I felt like God was asking me why I didn't approach Him the way I did with my Dad when I was little.

If God is my heavenly Father, why do I seem to think that I can't approach with Him with excitement and joy to see Him? Why do I seem to think it's something I always have to take seriously?

Maybe there are times when we need to be more serious in our approach to God. That's the case with our earthly fathers too. But, I think we need to learn to sometimes approach God with the excitement of a little girl running to say hi to Dad when he gets home from work.

After all, God paid a huge price for us to have the freedom to do so. And He loves us even better than our earthly fathers ever can.

When was the last time you approached God with joy and excitement to see Him and spend time with Him?

Is this something you need to learn to do more often?