We are born into sin. That means on our prettiest days, we are still pretty ugly. Not a very nice thing to say to one another. But think about this verse: All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Or consider this verse: That all have turned away and that there is not one who does good.
From a cosmic point of view, true Clarity begins with understanding who we are and Who God is. God is holy. We are but filthy rags. From a personal point of view, however, Clarity doesn’t end there. If it did, there would be no hope.
Unfortunately, clarity often gets truncated by the secret understanding that we are ‘losers’ and never advances beyond that insight into a deeper knowledge that brings hope and freedom. So we walk around trying to prove to ourselves and everyone else that we are not losers. We expend a lot of energy trying to cover up for what we know, intrinsically, we lack.
We are not alone in our need to take cover! Since the beginning with the fall, Adam and Eve understood the need to cover, dodging God because of their nakedness. God’s voice was not enough to bring them out from their hiding place. The shifting shadows of their own sin hid from them the clarity that comes from standing in the pure light of God’s love. Even today, as a result of our ‘myopic’ clarity, we create a persona to ‘cover’ the person of ourselves.
True clarity comes when we stand before our Creator and declare that His goodness can cover our ugliness and when that happens, opportunity abounds. Shame no longer drives. Love fuels. Love truly covers a multitude of sins. His banner over me is love. Not love that is all accepting of anything around, but love that can embrace anyone, anywhere, anytime, under any condition. It’s love that will no longer live in hiding.
With this love, there comes a desire to separate from the things done in darkness rather than hide in the darkness with those things. That is true love entering the threshold of our hearts and bringing us clarity.
And once that light is let in… Conviction begins to guide.
(Cheryl will continue this conversation in our next blog post – so make sure you are receiving our blog updates by email! You can sign up here.)