I am convinced there is a difference between being invisible for Jesus and being “see-through” for Jesus and it is more than semantics for me. Invisible is being completely unseen (and perhaps unseeable) where as see-though is about people both seeing a person and the essence of the person. The more I follow Jesus and the better I get at following Jesus through God’s work in me, the more my essence is Jesus-y essence. It is a what-you-see-is-what-you-get, who-you-see-is-who-I-am kind of thing. As a Jesus-follower, I hope people will see Jesus through me.
I would say I am not interested in transparency for transparency’s sake (thought that may be good); I am interested in being open and clear about who I am and who I am is connected to Jesus. Now it’s all starting to sound like semantics. It is terrible to know what you mean and not be able to make clear what that is.
I believe one thing Jesus calls us to be is transparent, that is part of being people who bear his message. His love needs to be evident in and through us. What do people see when they look at us? I’ve begun to look at issues of transparency and stories of transparency in the Bible. For instance Jesus taught that it wasn’t necessary to swear by God or anything else, that our “yes” ought to mean “yes” and our “no” ought to mean “no.” We are called to be “lights on a hill.” I am working on where that all will take us as we search the Bible for clues about being transparent in Jesus’ name.
What does transparency mean to you?
I am struck with Matt 21:23-32 except we need to walk the walk and talk the talk. I think the first son may have been passive aggressive. The second son had a guilty conscience. We need to be a shining star for Jesus. Say and do.
I think when we shine is when people know why we do things and what motivates us. Seeing the love of God flow through us. God’s love does give so much for us and when we let it be seen through us, we are showing that the kingdom of God is just a little closer…
Comment by SM — October 23, 2008 @ 9:48 am