Privacy

“All of you set free by God, tell the world!
Tell how he freed you from oppression.” (Ps. 107:1 MSG)

Glorifying God sounds like a great idea…until you realize that it means giving up your privacy! In order to publicize God’s strengths, you have to reveal your weaknesses. In order to proclaim how God freed you from oppression, you have to talk about your areas of bondage. In order to praise God for healing, you have to talk about your sickness. This is uncomfortable.

Transparency makes us vulnerable. Everything that we say can be used against us. Revealing our vulnerability may invite abuse. This is a necessary risk we must take in order to glorify God.

However, we must be careful to not draw attention to ourselves in this process. If we are wearing a transparent gown, and all it shows off is our nakedness and shame, then it doesn’t fulfill God’s purposes. The transparency has to go further, to reveal the image of Christ in our souls. This requires that we have Christ as our inner core in the first place.

Honesty and transparency glorify God if, and only if, Christ is at the center of our lives.