“Are you leading a transparent life?”
I’ll confess I’ve never, ever, ever, ever, thought about that before.
I didn’t even realize ‘transparency’ is a Christian life-goal.
Somehow, I missed it among the fruits of the spirit.
The question seems a bit vague but that may be my spiritual immaturity showing.
If you mean physically transparent, I’ve gotta say “no”.
It’s a daily struggle for me to achieve invisibility.
I’m reminded of this truth every time I look in the mirror.
If you mean intellectually transparent, I’ll say, “Yes and no.”
On one hand, my thoughts are immaterial.
Immaterial things are by nature ‘transparent’.
Nobody has ever said to me, “Quit thinking! Your ideas are blocking the television!”
On the other hand, I don’t express every single thought I have to every single person I meet.
I’m not ‘transparent’ enough that people know when I’m thinking things like…
“That dress really highlights her mustache.”
And if you mean spiritually transparent, I won’t hesitate to say, “Huh?”
In all sincerity, that question is profoundly dumb.
I can’t even make fun of that question because I have no idea what it means.
When we form questions, we need to be careful about confusing ‘deep’ and ‘dumb’.
I think you meant to ask, “Are you living an honest life?”
I’ll answer that with, “Sometimes.”
I’m not consistently honest.
Sometimes I’m opaque.
But sometimes I’ll call dumb questions dumb.
17 Responses
I enjoyed reading this. A while back an internet rumor started up that alleged I didn’t have a husband. He was supposedly a figment of my imagination or a deception of some sort. I lamented to hubby about it and he said, “you mean you’re married to the invisible man?” Yes, that’s exactly what I meant by “transparent.” Sheesh, literalists are us.
You can’t be! The Invisible Man married the Invisible Woman. I heard their kids aren’t much to look at…
Ha! Good one. I have astoundingly good looking kids, so you have now revealed the flaw in my theory.
The post reminds me of the video by Tripp and Tyler https://youtu.be/7Dxo0Yjno3I
People need to step back and look at their jargon at times.
I guess this is funny to some people but the word “shoot” in the title offended me. Just being transparent, bro.
If I don’t say shoot, I’m not being honest with myself. To be fair, maybe I need an accountability partner.
Really??? I thought it really rocked my witness! You need an accountability partner to guard your heart, John? 😉❤️
I am very glad preacher Mike showed up to teach us all how to be good Christians.
He wasn’t lecturing all Christians. The comment was specifically to help me.
Hypocrites are comfortable being transparent about how others are to act. It helps to mask the truth of how corrupt their souls are.
Transparent has a couple meanings in its definition- easy to perceive or detect.having thoughts, feelings, or motives that are easily perceived. I am one who has used this term in relation to my Christian life. It’s a balancing act between letting others know what is going on in my life and the other being TMI. On Sunday mornings we walk into church service with our masks firmly affixed lest others know we are not as fine as we have just answered their question with “fine”. I would like for myself and others I worship with to say you no I am not fine let’s bear one another’s burden for awhile. Will I ever be completely transparent, and maybe that is not a correct use of the word but I am open to correction from fellow brothers and sisters, probably not but I can through my example let others know we don’t walk through this alone but we are hear for each other. If that makes me dumb so be it. It’s not the first time and mostly likely won’t be the last. Oops there I go being transparent again.
HA ha! I think you’ve expressed the difficulty in asking the question. Only ‘transparent’ people will be able to answer it in any meaningful way and the meaning will be lost to the rest of us.
I would hope that it gets easier to ask and answer the question as I go along.
A pastor I knew told me that the only good church was one that had addicts, prostitutes, theives, murderers…. etc. in the pews.
So if I’m in a good church, I just assume everyone I talk to is crippled into opaqueness. (Like me.)
The best one can do is pray that God opens up windows of opportunity for some honesty and truth that leads to healing.
I think you meant to ask, “Are you living an honest life?”
I’ll answer that with, “Sometimes.”
I’m not consistently honest.
Sometimes I’m opaque.
—
Opaque figuratively, of course. I agree. Sometimes we all are a bit less honest and a bit more opaque and evasive than we really should be. This is why in the modern vernacular ‘transparent’ is used figuratively for ‘honest’ in discussion.
And I agree with you. You are not all the time transparent or honest in your discussions. Intentionally so, I think. I think that much is ‘transparent’ or clearly obvious to anyone who has ever had discussions with you. If one does that on a regular basis, it would be a demonstration of your general willingness or is it unwillingness… To be honest when discussing with others.
-kia
Thanks!
Have A Nice Day!
Honestly, Kia… with non-evasive transparency, I can openly say I think you were being obtuse. Or was it oblique?
Actually… it would be nice if people would just seek and speak the truth.