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Our Real Selves

Matthew 12:20 says, “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he leads justice to victory.”
The world is looking for something real, not contrived, masked, or faked. Why do we hide behind masks? If it is fear, what are we afraid of? If we show our real self and are rejected, where do we go? When we want to hide the dark side of our lives from others, we are saying that our true self is not worth knowing.
Brennan Manning says, “The Rabbi doesn’t want us to be perfect, just real. Yet at times we try so hard to please God and impress others—determined to be perfect Christians—that we are sucked dry of energy and sickened by our own slick surface and inner hypocrisy…The Rabbi’s heartbeat is for us, not against us. Though He will always cut away the counterfeit green and barrenness of our hypocrisy, He will never crush the bruised reed of our broken lives. The hewn branches He leaves along the pathway are never the result of disgust but always the result of His care-filled pruning.”
When we accept the reality of our sinfulness, we accept our real self. We don’t have to hide, play games, or run from reality. God doesn’t reveal our true condition to crush us, but to heal us. We can be at peace with God and man, not thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought, and not hating a part of ourselves. God breaks down walls of division between us and Him; between each of us and even within ourselves. When Christ died to save us, He died to save every part of us; there is no place in us His love cannot reach.
-Pastor Dino Griffin