I’m On Top of the World – pt 3

This is to finish up my message from this last weekend…

One of the things that can happen to us when we’re on the mountain is that we begin thinking that it’s always supposed to be like this, and we create a facade to make it look like everything is going good all of the time. But to get the most out of the mountain, we need to value and live in transparency.

When Moses came down from the mountain, his face began to shine. Everyone noticed this visible sign that he had been with God. But what began to happen is that the shine began to wear off, and so Moses wore a veil. Paul says that he put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away.

He didn’t want people to notice that he wasn’t experiencing the same thing he once was, and so he essentially wore a mask.

When you think everything has to look right and has to be all together, you distance people from experiencing your reality. You keep people away from really knowing you. And really, you set yourself up to not be able to encounter God.

We encounter and experience God best in the midst of transparency and honesty. And so it’s ok to realize that someones you’re doing a great job as a parent and other days you’d rather keep them locked up than to release them in public. It’s ok to admit that there are moments when your faith is incredibly strong, and moments when you just need other people to come alongside you and believe for you. Maybe you need to be honest that you’re not living as consistently as you wish you were, or that your marriage is in a rough place, or that your finances are a mess.

If you keep putting up the veil, you’re probably not going to encounter the mountain again. You’ll just keep creating a pseudo spirituality that’s based on having the right appearances and knowing the right things to say, instead of developing an authentic relationship with Jesus.

To continue in a mountain experience is to be keenly aware of your need for God, which can only happen in the midst of honesty and transparency.