Recently I shared a snibit on transparency and I recieved this question.
"We label, and none of it's right. We have to treat each individual as they come, because in the end, there are no stereotypical people, right? What I'm wondering is this -- how do we break ourselves of this? Is transparency truly attainable?"
My answer:
I do believe that aspects of transparency are attainable, what I do not believe is the church will ever be able to accept somebody truly as they are in the midst of sin. The bible says this:
"John 2:23 During the time he(speaking of Jesus)was in Jerusalem, those days of the Passover Feast, many people noticed the signs he was displaying and, seeing they pointed straight to God, entrusted their lives to him. 2:24 But Jesus didn't entrust his life to them. He knew them inside and out, knew how untrustworthy they were. 2:25 He didn't need any help in seeing right through them.".
What this says to me is that men are (in their nature) untrustworthy. Men see what we do for God and they pat us on the back but if we were to show them some of the things, done or thought, in secret they would judge and disown us. Often man exalts himself above another man or exalts other men above other men. Why this is I don't know. This is why we struggle with the fear of man. If we have no fear of man then we can be transparent. See as humans we compare the sins and the accomplishments of man. Why is the pastor considered to be more spiritual than anyone else in the church, or a prophet. Why do people see them more important. Because that's what man tends to do. We recognize categories to place people in and then we rank them spritualy. I will never be transparent with just anyone or with leadership, just as leadership will never be transparent with me or with you. Most cannot afford to be transparent because they are afraid of losing their status or ranking with man. If you knew that a pastor had thought vulgar thoughts of sin would you still listen to what he has to say about the Lord. Or what if your pastor went out and had a drink with some friends. Would you still respect him as a man of God or would you comtemplate leaving the church. If you leave, you no longer believe him to be good enough to lead you as a man of God. The thought "He should not do that because he's a pastor" comes in and he literaly becomes worse the you and in a nut shell, he failed you in a sense. Now does God love him, does God see him any less than you. What tranparency does is crush mans intention for status and it places us where God sees all of us, as sinners. And NO SIN IS GREATER THAN ANOTHER. All this to say transparency can be attained amongst a group of friends holding eachother accountable and are among those not seeking status or a promotion in the church. This can be done with a group of about three to four people at most and I would strongly recommend finding people to have this relationship with. The enemy dwells in the dark areas of our lives. Alot of times when we bring out our junk into the light it is the first step to being free. But we must do this without the fear of being condemed by leadership or peers because that fear will keep us in the same kind of bondage. But until we see the way that Jesus Christ sees, we will always be incapable of truly accepting transparency
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I've been doing some thinking on this subject. I'm not trying to beat a dead horse, I just enjoy an intellectual conversation.
Going on the assumption that the church in general opens their eyes to how judgemental we truly are, I'm pondering some things.
Speaking on an individual walk, if we were to accept the fact that we have no finger to point, we have no scorn to give, we have no right to judge, and others saw that in us, perhaps then people would feel more comfortable baring their hearts.
We do exalt our pastors, and our leadership in church. We hold them to a higher standard. In some cases, I feel we should. After all, they are -leading-. However, a certain amount of grace MUST be given. We all fall short of the glory of God. We all are born of flesh, and the lust of the flesh is so strong sometimes. We. All. Fall. Short. No one before, during, or after Jesus was, is, will be pure. He is the only. It's not that we can't be transparent, it's that our hearts have been hardened, and we have been desensitized, and oversensitized in all the wrong places.
So I agree, with a small group of people, transparency can take place. I have experienced both ends of the spectrum. Some have walked out of my life, there is no forgiveness there. Though, I -have- found forgiveness, I -have- found grace, I -have- found unfailing love. Jesus Christ living in others has made this possible, and I owe Him all the praise... But shouldn't all God's people be this way? In an ideal situation anyway...
Something to think about, we are transparent in the fact that we cannot hide anything from God. But we become transluscent, because there is the blood of Jesus Christ standing before us and God. When we accept Jesus, God sees us through that blood and we are made whole, pure, and holy.
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