Five Minute Friday :: Real

It's Wednesday and I'm doing last Friday's prompt. But there's no judging here, right? We are just letting it all go down on paper for five minutes, and then encouraging each other.

Click here to see what this is all about, if you'd like to join us.

Last Friday's prompt was:

  It is such a paradox that we put on a show for others in order to connect—and we are made for connection—and the very show we put on sabotages our ability to connect. Even if we are successful, we doubt the realness of the relationship.

 Because, we think, if they knew the real us, they wouldn't love us. They might not even like us.

 And so the whole thing becomes a big circle that traps us and we wonder why we feel so empty. But the truth is freeing, and that is what it really means to be really real—to tell the truth about who we are.

No wonder so many of us feel adrift in this world, coasting around on the parts we play. No wonder we come undone when the act is over and we are left alone with our true selves.

But there is One who knows us better than even we know ourselves. He sees the real us, but it isn't what we see. His perspective is what He created us to be, what He knows we can be, if only we will lay down the roles we play and surrender to His unconditional love.

Maybe that is what being real truly is. Letting go of the act that keeps us stuck and grasping the freedom He offers.