Lent Day 22… If you want to give anything worthwhile of yourself, you have to feel completely exposed

On Wednesday of this week, we had an all-staff meeting at the church. This wasn’t one of those business, strategy, or calendar-planning types of meetings. Instead, it was going over a chapter in a book we have been reading together (Discovering Our Spiritual Identity: Practices for God’s Beloved by Trevor Hudson). As part of the discussion at the end of the chapter, each of us had to answer one of the following questions:

1. What has been one of your most significant spiritual experiences?

2. How have you experienced the presence of God in tough times?

As we went around the table sharing from our lives, there was a tenderness —a sense of reverence, maybe even a holy hush. Most cried as they shared. Others cried as they listened to a co-worker share.

This wasn’t a quick meeting. Opening up takes time. Sharing deeply personal stories cannot be rushed. In fact, there was little time left for anything else in staff meeting.

A few hours after the meeting had finished, I received the following e-mail from one of our pastors:

I appreciated the feedback. It’s not always easy to tell whether other people valued what took place as much as I do. But I suspected it had been a holy moment… the knitting together of hearts as we laid down our defenses.

Isn’t that the way it always is? It feels like such a risk to speak honestly, to reveal what is really there—and yet, it’s only when we truly open up that freedom comes.

If you want to give anything worthwhile of yourself, you have to feel completely exposed. —Charlotte Rampling