Unapologetically Human
On April 11th, 2018 Jon Fuller spoke with the host of the Bros, Bible and Beer Podcast. These are thoughts and opinions derived from the interview.We live in a world that idolizes living a blemish-free life. We have so many forces screaming at us to achieve a vision of perfection that’s unattainable. This can be overwhelming, suffocating even. We get so caught up trying to maintain an image that we think will project well to society that we disregard any genuine emotion and discredit our humanness. We start to believe that we’re alone, that no one else is experiencing these side effects of the human condition. Yet, we’re so busy trying to hide our pain in the corner that we’re all blind to the fact that everyone is doing the same thing.
While there are many things that stood out in this interview, the biggest take away for me was the acknowledgment of raw emotions and coping with pain. As a society, this topic often gets swept under the rug. I believe it’s important to recognize your hurts, to allow yourself to feel them, and give others permission to do the same as well. It is vital, to be honest with your emotions and to be aware of the fact that you’re human. Our humanness is messy, it is scribbled, it is tattered and torn, and it is not always comfortable.
What’s comforting is that we all experience it. Experiencing pain is inevitable, so living in fear of the consequences of it is only going to be crippling. With this being said, learning to accept that the situation is in the hands of someone with big enough hands to hold your hurt is soothing. Knowing that God won’t hand you back the pieces until you’re ready for them offers constant feelings of being unencumbered if you so choose to recognize his power in the situation.
More often than not, people believe that if they express their hurt, their sins, or their humanness to God that he’s going to be angry. He’s going to be disappointed that they’re not a blameless example, and he’s going to turn away from them. What they’re failing to recognize is that God already knows. God knows we are human, that we ache, that we mess up, and that we need him. God is always there in our darkest, loneliest hours, waiting to pick us back up. Any separation from him in these moments is self-inflicted because God never leaves us; and the less we try to occupy this space of power for him, the more space we leave for his will.
Overall, the moral is that we should give ourselves permission to be unapologetically human, and give others a platform to openly be raw. While we shouldn’t camp in our melancholic emotions, we should allow ourselves to work through them. Sometimes attempting to dilute pain with comfort is the worst way to address the situation; sometimes you should just sit in solace with others and allow them to feel the validity of their pain. The truth that we don’t always have the answers isn’t stretched enough, that we don’t have to take hold of the situation. At some point, we have to learn to stop attempting to capitalize our emotions and letting the God who already knows our story punctuate them for us.
Did you enjoy these thoughts and ideas? If you did, we encauge you to listen to episode 97 of Are You Real Purpose.
