Stripped.

There's no telling what's going to flow from my fingers tonight.
There's no agenda. There's no plan.

I continue to wonder how honest I am with this online community. How well do you feel like you really know me? How much do you trust me? Am I more concerned with the amount of hits I receive each day over the quality of what I'm writing? Probably sometimes, unfortunately.

I sometimes want to write about things that I'm too scared for you to see. Controversial subjects--things that may sway you to never read my blog again. Things having to do with sex, and image, and God, and doubt, and fear, and hopelessness, and hopefulness, and love. Things that are raw and honest. Things you might disagree with. Things that might make my mother cringe.

I don't think we're open-minded enough though. I think we, all too often, walk around too confident in what we believe to be true, without allowing ourselves to consider that something else might actually be true. To some extent this can be good--being firm in our beliefs. But, sometimes.... sometimes I think that our inability to even hear others out without judgement and condemnation makes us hateful and more self-righteous than ever.

I feel like I know less than I did ten years ago. I feel like I'm less sure of things...but, simultaneously more confident. It's a great paradox, I realize. Maybe it's because before I was claiming to believe things without taking the time to really know why or if I even did. Now, I'd rather tell someone I don't honestly know before taking a stance on something. Now, I'd rather hear someone else out and what they think before projecting my own thoughts and opinions on them.

For the last year I've longed to be absolutely stripped of what isn't true. To be shed of the things within me that I've ignorantly believed because it's what I was told to believe. Some of those things are true...and I cling to them. Some of them are not...and I want nothing to do with them any longer. I don't want to exist in a place where I am solely defined by American Christianity...because sometimes I think we've just completely missed the mark. Because sometimes (ironically so), this Christianity seems void of Christ....which makes me realize how, as I sought to be a 'solid Christian girl', that there are parts of me void of Him too. My strife was more about achieving a great Christian status over being more in love with Jesus.

We care too much what people think.
I care too much what you think.
I care about disappointing you.

But, I know I will. I hope you know that, too.
I hope that no matter what I post and no matter what I think, that you would be willing to hear me out. That you would be willing to consider a view that might be different than yours. That you wouldn't hesitate to challenge me or tell me your own thoughts/opinions on any subject.

I hope, in the end, that you trust that my desire is to unveil truth and to stop living according to the lies...whether that's found in the religion or in the profane. It's a journey that I'm constantly inviting you to join me in...as I hope to be constantly different, better, more in love with Jesus and who He really is.

I want to be stripped.
May everything else fall away other than what is true, and good, and pure. In the process, I pray that I learn the fullness of what it means to love and what it means to truly follow Jesus. Because, in my heart, I fear I have yet to know the magnitude of how much this changes everything.

I want to be more raw and real with you than ever before. I want the same from you.
I'm a little scared.
Maybe you are, too.
So... what do you say? Can I be honest with you?

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