Forget the homeless, stranger for a moment. In some ways it’s easy to offer acceptance to that person because we can do it from a distance. What I’m interested in hearing about is how well you accept the people in your daily circle of influence? Maybe a more applicable question is, how well do you know them? The people you work with? The people you sit next to in class? Your neighbors? Your very best friends? The people you serve with at church? Your family? Here’s my answer, you know them only as much as they are willing to let you know them. If we’re honest, we all have areas of our lives that we choose not to share, even with those closest to us. Why? As I ask this question I think of a red-faced and furious Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men erupting with, “You can’t handle the truth!” Are you prepared to hear that your best friend was repeatedly molested by a family member as a child? What would your responsibility as a Christian be to that person, and would it be different if that friend told you instead that they had cheated on their spouse in the past?

Christians talk about acceptance and forgiveness, but don’t these concepts, in our lives, often have boundaries? I wonder if the limits to which we’ll share is relative to that which we’ll accept. I have some friends that are not afraid to peel back layer after layer of themselves, like an onion, and expose to everyone the depths of their souls. I have a certain respect and admiration for that kind of openness but, truthfully, it also scares me because I know that I am not always willing to reciprocate with the same level of openness. Fear of rejection, judgment and/or condemnation often keep us from sharing our hurts and struggles, leaving us bound to the sins, failures, victimizations and insecurities of our past and, at the same time, crippling our present. We are products of our pasts; good, bad and indifferent.

During a recent church service we incorporated what is called a “cardboard testimonial”. Friends wrote on one side of a piece of cardboard something that they’ve struggled with in their past. On the other side of the cardboard they wrote how God used that situation to change them. Nearly 20 people shared pieces of their stories in this way. The purpose of this presentation was to highlight the transformational powers of Christ in our lives. What we discovered was the potential for a deeper healing of the soul as a result of sharing our vulnerabilities with our community. Hurts, tragedies, and sins were offered for all to see, and it was beautiful to watch them received with the love and compassion of Christ by our body.

Can we actually live a life of freedom from the shackles of our past, and how can we help each other succeed? James 5:16 tells us to “…confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” What if we really lived like this text asks us to? My questions, to this point, have revolved around how we accept others, but the bigger question is how willing are you to share yourself with your community? Can you really allow yourself to be seen? Do you believe that God promises deliverance from that which binds our hearts?

Below is a link to the cardboard testimony of another church. I dare you not to be moved as you watch this unfold. Also, as you witness the redemptive stories of others, I challenge you to consider the following:

What about your past is crippling you today? Are you willing to share yourself  so that your community can pray for you, and so God can heal you? We cannot heal what we cannot feel. Let’s use this space as our cardboard testimonial. I’ll go first. My cardboard reads on the front, “Struggle for Control in my life” and to highlight God’s transformation in me, the back of my cardboard reads, “Finally Gave Control back to God!”

What does your’s say?