Thursday, August 10, 2006
Dragon Skin Beneath the Mask
James 5:16
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
I came across this verse the other day and it's been driving me up the wall. I don't like the idea of confessing my sins to someone else. Then I have to let people see the ugly side of myself that I don't like. God's used it lead me through some steps to realizing some stuff that I really don't like about myself.
As soon as I started trying to dismiss what I'm going through and ignore it, I read an article and I found the verse again. God's not letting me hide. No matter how much I want to.
Yes I prayed for God to change me, but I'm not liking the process. I'm starting to understand the idea of God tearing up the old stuff to rebuild you into his own image. The tearing up is painful. It reminds me in the book 'The Voyage of the Dawn Treader' when Aslan peels off the dragon skin from Eustace.
"Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off - just as I thought I'd done it myself the other three times, only they hadn't hurt - and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the other had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me - I didn't like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I'd no skin on - and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I'd turned into a boy again."
It didn't hurt that much to realize the stuff, not as much as getting as getting dragon skin torn off, but it definitely isn't pleasant. Reading over that passage now made me realize that I can't get rid of the ugly stuff by myself, that I need God's help. I also realized that in the end I'll end up being who I was created to be.
So I guess I'm going to need to not give up and keep letting people see who I am, even the ugly, so that I can be who God wants me to be. I'm just not liking it to much right now.
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
I came across this verse the other day and it's been driving me up the wall. I don't like the idea of confessing my sins to someone else. Then I have to let people see the ugly side of myself that I don't like. God's used it lead me through some steps to realizing some stuff that I really don't like about myself.
As soon as I started trying to dismiss what I'm going through and ignore it, I read an article and I found the verse again. God's not letting me hide. No matter how much I want to.
Yes I prayed for God to change me, but I'm not liking the process. I'm starting to understand the idea of God tearing up the old stuff to rebuild you into his own image. The tearing up is painful. It reminds me in the book 'The Voyage of the Dawn Treader' when Aslan peels off the dragon skin from Eustace.
"Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off - just as I thought I'd done it myself the other three times, only they hadn't hurt - and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the other had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me - I didn't like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I'd no skin on - and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I'd turned into a boy again."
It didn't hurt that much to realize the stuff, not as much as getting as getting dragon skin torn off, but it definitely isn't pleasant. Reading over that passage now made me realize that I can't get rid of the ugly stuff by myself, that I need God's help. I also realized that in the end I'll end up being who I was created to be.
So I guess I'm going to need to not give up and keep letting people see who I am, even the ugly, so that I can be who God wants me to be. I'm just not liking it to much right now.
# posted by Wes @ 10:17 p.m. 
