I'm not brave enough...

Sometimes I hate it when God sends me a message!!  I know I should always be grateful but dog gone it, really??  A couple of people will understand why I say dog gone it!!  I read this in a devotional this morning!  

"We all have something. Most of us have lots of somethings. And you don’t have to broadcast them to the world. You don’t have to tell 30 people that you ate a whole pizza. But what would happen if you told one person about the real you and the real struggles you face?  Darkness can’t live in the light, and sharing our darkness inevitably brightens and lightens what seemed impenetrable and all-encompassing. And you never know who else is carrying the same burden. You just might find that you share your something and hear those powerful two words capable of flooding your heart and someone else’s with hope and encouragement: “Me, too.”

“A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated,

but two can stand back-to-back and conquer.

Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.”

{Ecclesiastes 4:12, NLT}

What difference could “Me, too” make in your life today?"

Yikes!!  To share the real you with someone or a couple of someone's??  That's REALLY hard for me!!  Oh, I can share lots of facts and medical information with the world....that's easy!  I can even share some surface level emotions.  But to share the real me, the deep struggles, and what's currently going on in my heart...that's another story!!  And God has definitely been stirring up things in my heart lately!!  Maybe one day I will be brave enough to share them with the world!  Maybe one day I will be brave enough to share them with one or two!  Maybe....

I hear people all the time talk about feeling disconnected!!  I can't help but wonder if this is not the very reason why.  We are closed books!  Oh we let others see the surface...but the true us...no way!  But yet, that is where connection happens...when we share our true selves!

Last Sunday our pastor asked for us to come the next few Wednesday nights and fellowship meal together with others.  AND....he asked us to come on Sunday nights to a potluck meal!  For people like me, that sounds like pure torture.  Just sit and chat with people. Get to know others.  Connect with others.  I really don't do that very well right now!  Oh, I can ask lots of questions, and I can enter other people's worlds but resist greatly when people enter my world.  But the truth remains...

And what happens if we are brave enough to tell our story and our struggles to just a few??!!  What if someone offers us a "ME TOO" or we offer someone else a "ME TOO".  That would definitely remove aloneness and begin connections.  But...I'm not brave enough most of the time!!