"Jesus wept."
John 11:35 NKJV.
I was reading last night that this is the shortest verse in the NKJV Bible. In context this is the reaction of Jesus to the death of His good friend, Lazarus.
Here is a dictionary definition of the word 'weep';
to express grief, sorrow, or any overpowering emotion by shedding tears; shed tears; cry: to weep for joy; to weep with rage. (Dictionary.com).
Not just a few tears in the eyes but proper crying, grief, mourning for the loss of a dear, dear friend.
What struck me about this was that Jesus was authentic. He was real. He experienced the array of emotions we have. He felt sorrow, grief, anger, joy, happiness and love.
So if Jesus, our Saviour and Son of God can be real then why do we find it difficult as Christians? I certainly don't want to be seen as a complainer or bitter by fellow Christians but I do want to be real and feel that I can share my problems with my friends. When I feel overcome with emotion I want to be able to unashamedly be real about it with fellow Christians. I don't want to put a mask on and pretend that life is wonderful, I am full of joy and oh so blessed when I am struggling to see this.
I think that sometimes we (myself included) are scared of bringing others down, appearing weak in our faith, and being judged as not having as strong a faith as others. This is very wrong among Christians. Paul spoke about weakness and how God shows His strength through our weakness.
I am thankful that I am in a Church where I know that there are people I can be real with, and they with me. However, there have been times when I felt I just couldn't share anything that was going on in my life. Specifically when I had Post Natal Depression. I was so ashamed of how I felt and scared of being judged that it took me a looooong time to share this with friends at Church. Of course I wasn't judged and had lots of support.
It isn't easy to share how you are really feeling but God wants us to be real among each other. Being a Christian doesn't mean your life will be free of suffering and you have a permanent smile and feeling of joy. Christians are only human and experience trials like anyone. I think sometimes we are not being real by brushing our true feelings under the carpet and not sharing these experiences with others.
Anyway, just a few of my thoughts on being authentic and how wonderful that we have Jesus as our great example of how to live our lives.
I was reading last night that this is the shortest verse in the NKJV Bible. In context this is the reaction of Jesus to the death of His good friend, Lazarus.
Here is a dictionary definition of the word 'weep';
to express grief, sorrow, or any overpowering emotion by shedding tears; shed tears; cry: to weep for joy; to weep with rage. (Dictionary.com).
Not just a few tears in the eyes but proper crying, grief, mourning for the loss of a dear, dear friend.
What struck me about this was that Jesus was authentic. He was real. He experienced the array of emotions we have. He felt sorrow, grief, anger, joy, happiness and love.
So if Jesus, our Saviour and Son of God can be real then why do we find it difficult as Christians? I certainly don't want to be seen as a complainer or bitter by fellow Christians but I do want to be real and feel that I can share my problems with my friends. When I feel overcome with emotion I want to be able to unashamedly be real about it with fellow Christians. I don't want to put a mask on and pretend that life is wonderful, I am full of joy and oh so blessed when I am struggling to see this.
I think that sometimes we (myself included) are scared of bringing others down, appearing weak in our faith, and being judged as not having as strong a faith as others. This is very wrong among Christians. Paul spoke about weakness and how God shows His strength through our weakness.
I am thankful that I am in a Church where I know that there are people I can be real with, and they with me. However, there have been times when I felt I just couldn't share anything that was going on in my life. Specifically when I had Post Natal Depression. I was so ashamed of how I felt and scared of being judged that it took me a looooong time to share this with friends at Church. Of course I wasn't judged and had lots of support.
It isn't easy to share how you are really feeling but God wants us to be real among each other. Being a Christian doesn't mean your life will be free of suffering and you have a permanent smile and feeling of joy. Christians are only human and experience trials like anyone. I think sometimes we are not being real by brushing our true feelings under the carpet and not sharing these experiences with others.
Anyway, just a few of my thoughts on being authentic and how wonderful that we have Jesus as our great example of how to live our lives.
Awesome post. How true is this. We do are human and even though we love our God more than anything we will get trials but we will always have him on our side and nothing is better or mightier than that. I love God and want to share my love of God with others and I don't care what happens to me as a result!
ReplyDeleteI love the way you took that scripture and pointed out the strong emotion in our Savior.
ReplyDeleteLovely Collette.
I pray you have a wonderful week!
Beth
Great post Colette, this is something I have been giving a lot of thought to lately also.
ReplyDeleteThis is most certainly an area that most all of us could work on....just allowing people to see that even though we're Christians, we still have struggles and hurts. Many are under the impression that because we carry the title Christian, we have no more problems...no more hurts....how many more we could reach for Christ if we'd just be real....
ReplyDeleteHUGS!
Deb
Collette,
ReplyDeleteI think it's what is most important today is that people see real Christians, the one's that make mistakes but also see how we put our lives back on track again.
Love and Hugs ~ Kat
We can tap into His authenticity because of His awesome mercy and grace!
ReplyDeleteFabulous post!
Great post again, Collette!!
ReplyDeleteNot being able to express you emotions, or worrying about what others think all comes from pride. And that's where the enemy gets a stronghold on people. What a blessing it is have friend in the Lord who you can trust and be encouraged by.
Wonderful post, Collette. Thank you for sharing what the Lord showed you.
ReplyDelete