Stripped.

Money, fancy cars, smiles, high heels, education, status, jobs, etc... all things that help the world go round. Part of life, part of you and I. Material things, Chipper facebook status', a painted face or designer label. The world.

Who are we if we are stripped of these things? One of my best friends pondered this question aloud one day... It made me think, what are people hiding behind? What are people really like when they leave the crowd and sit in their bedroom? Who are they? Where are their thoughts? What are they thinking about?

What is our purpose? At the end of the day, when the lights are out, the make up is off, the party is over, the kitchen is cleaned, the clothes are dirty... what is left of us? Is there more beyond what strangers and acquaintances see on the outside?

Is there substance? Something deeper? A passion? A yearning to live out what our hearts are on fire for? Or do we wake up to get dressed and put on a show for the world, thinking of ourselves.. What can the world give me?

Do we fight for something? Strive for something? Ache for something? Do we think about such things? Can we change the world?

Who can we be a friend to? Who needs love? How can I show others I love them? Will people see my heart through the life I live? Who is hurting? Who is struggling at this very moment? Who is just barely hanging on? Who can I encourage? Who needs a little push? Who needs my time? My money? Who just needs someone?

There are so many distractions... so much going on.. Life is good for me but someone out there is hurting, aching. We are blessed but someone else feels they have nothing. Life is not about us. How can I get ahead? I want the best car... I will prove to them... I don't need anyone... Walls go up.. How can this really fulfill a person?

I need to be a friend, I need to help, I need to give. Not about me but about them, and that makes us. I will help you and you help me... Give and take but mostly give... have my hand, my help, my money, my heart. Let me show you how the Father loves. Let's hold hands and go through life together... stripped. No show, nothing on the surface... but deeper. These are my fears, what are yours? Let's cry together & not pretend life is perfect... then let's rejoice in the name of the Perfect One.

This is me, flaws, sin, guilt, shame, brokenness. All of us, at some point will break, but we will have each other... And the love of Christ. Together. Me and you... them and us... One. Praise God for the love of a brother and a sister.

Praise the Father, who takes brokenness and makes a new creation, takes sin and makes a testimony, takes death and breathes new life, takes flaws and makes art, takes shame and makes a miraculous discovery. Praise to the one who heals, fills, and conquers. Praise. Be. To Him. He loves you and me. We love, because He first loved us. He loves. us. Stripped. For who we are, so shall we love others.

Let us be reminded:

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; [2] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Now that is deep. That is substance. That will not fade. I hope I have this. This is what it's all about.