When we are young we take joy in everything around us: our fingers, our toes, the color purple, morning's glow. To take part in creation's glee was as wondrous to our young hearts as it was to Pinocchio as the newly animated puppet took his first steps and said his first words. We all begin as little wooden boys and girls just happy to be included in the world.
This joy lasts for years, for the lucky ones a little more than a decade; then, we start to realize that something's missing. We can turn our heads, blink our eyes, wave our arms, stomp our feet but that missing something...something primal, plunging and deep…leaves our heartbeats absent sound, our touch without warmth. Its absence spurs our desperate search. What strings move us, make us more life-like? What will make our lives feel more fluid? What would make us real? What will make us feel the cold on our skin, the blood run in our veins, our skin tickle with sensation? What will give us a life beyond the mechanics and uniform motion?
Many run-ins in life claim to have the answer: a wider TV, a faster car, a newer phone, a bigger house, some slammin' jeans, a better job, a husband, a wife, a child, worldwide fame; the list goes on and on. What's right and wrong dissolves into what's pleasurable and uncomfortable. Our dreams and desires, the world's aspirations and disasters pull us in different directions, tangling us up and spinning us in circles until, immediately or eventually, we fall and feel the pang of failure reverberate off our wooden frames.
But the Lord is close to the brokenhearted, and never loses sight in the potential our wooden limbs carry. Just as the Blue Fairy watches over Pinocchio, reminding him to be true, so God whispers to us in our anguish, speaking to the truth written upon our hearts:
BE TRUTHFUL. No good has ever come from a lie, certainly not a relationship with God. It may seem overwhelming, even frightening to share what we feel are embarrassing feelings and shameful acts with a perfect God, but it is necessary. Like any lie—refusing to acknowledge our mistakes, pretending to understand when we don’t, saying we are not angry when we are, bottling our fears when we are afraid—will only snowball into anger and resentment toward God, separating us further from Him. A relationship begins when we finally admit to ourselves what we need. And we need God.
God, I’m afraid.
God, I’m interested in getting to know you.
God, I don’t trust you.
God, I am confused.
God…I’m ready.
Be truthful and set yourself free. Pour out your heart to God. He will never lie, and it is only when we surrender the lies we tell ourselves that we begin to hear His truth.
BE BRAVE. It is a brave thing to believe in God. It is a brave thing to believe in God's promises. Faith is a brave thing. God knows what He has asked us to do is not easy, that in our present state, our journey back to Him may be long and painful, but honesty builds trust. We begin to trust God, and It's when we put our faith fully and completely in God that we become brave. We can weather any storm, go anywhere, do anything with Him at our sides, at our backs, and in our sight. Because God's love never fails.
God, I know you have not given me a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7
God, teach me to do your will. May your gracious Spirit lead me forward on a firm footing. Psalm 143:10
God, I know I have suffered so that I will stop relying on ourselves and learn to rely only on You. 2 Corinthians 1:9
God, If I lack wisdom, I will ask You, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to me. James 1:5
God, I must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! 2 Peter 3:18
Be brave and put yourself in His hands. Anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame (Romans 10:11).
BE SELFLESS. The moment we have confidence in God, is the moment we can surrender, have to surrender. It is one of if not the most fearsome thing a human can do, to give everything to God: our bodies, our hearts, our minds, our beings as we take the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to be our Lord and Savior.
Lord, you are the way, the truth, and the life. John 14:6
Be selfless and put everything at His feet. Become poor so that you may become rich in God.
God doesn't have a wand, and He certainly doesn't wear a blue dress but in our truthful, brave search for Christ and selfless service of the Lord and Savior, we become new creations; our wood made flesh, our strings made faith and our conscience made God.
