Exposed

In the last month the most important thing I have learned is, “honesty is the best policy.” Sure, we are all taught this as children but do we really know what that means? Because I am famous for someone asking if I’m okay and saying yes even if I feel like a train wreck. However, there is an easier route.

Example:

Friend: Hey Shawntika. Are you okay? You look like something is bothering you.

Me: I’m not okay but I’ll be fine.

EASY! But no. I normally go the other route. I hold it in hoping that no one will notice but for some reason, expecting that everyone will know. Yea. Like I said. Train wreck.

Fortunately, this last month I was challenged to be “rigorously honest” with myself and those around me. Now, there is a thin line between honesty and telling all of your business. I refuse to succumb to the latter. Yet being honest has liberated me.

It's also been hard. I have begun to share parts of myself with those closest to me which has left me completely exposed. At this point I am experiencing vulnerability on a completely new level. I’m talking about pure nakedness! I feel like the emperor who stood before the crowd naked thinking he was dressed in the latest fashion. Honestly, I had been feeling vulnerable for a few weeks but I am so used to hiding behind a wall that I didn’t know how to express what I was feeling until a few days ago.

Challenge Time! I’d like to challenge you today as I have been challenged. If you have at least one person in your life that you trust, be honest with them. It might hurt to reveal your truths but it will be completely worth it. 

As I removed myself from behind that wall of isolation and let one person in, it helped me let others in who mean me no harm. That might be hard to believe for those of us with lifetime memberships to the “Trust No One Club,” but like the prisoner set free in the “Allegory of the Cave,” it is my duty to turn around and tell someone…take off your clothes. Be naked before someone that God has sent to you. He’s never let you down before. And the reality is, the person that you are exposed to may not always be there but you’ll both always remember your liberation.