OK…so from time to time I am accused of being a little too transparent when I communicate…the following post will give evidence of that…and many of you may scream “TMI,” nonetheless…here we go…
Buying Preparation H is embarassing.
How do I know? I did it the other day…and not because I wanted to play a joke on someone…but because I needed it!
I was intimated walking into the drug store…and didn’t know where to look for it. BUT…(ha ha…“but”) I wasn’t about to ask where the hemorrhoid medicine was located…I guess I could find it myself.
After I located it I had to walk it up front and pay for it. For a brief second I thought about shoplifting…seriously…because I knew that the person who was going to ring me up was going to know what I was dealing with!
BUT…I decided to go ahead and get it over with. SO…I walked up to the cash register and a lady was standing there (GREAT…if it would have been a dude I could have at least cracked off a joke or something!) I handed her the box of Preparation H and she looked at it, sort of smiled and then rang it up.
I wanted to tell her it wasn’t for me…that is was for a friend…that I was getting a gag gift for someone. BUT…reality is this—I was in pain and wanted relief…and thus had to face a pretty embarassing situation in order to get my problem solved. (Yes, things are MUCH better—thanks for asking!)
I just KNOW that after I left the store that people probably referred to me as “butt boy” or “pastor preparation h!” BUT (ha-ha)...pain and discomfort will either produce desperation or denial…and I simply could not accept things the way they were.
WHICH brings me to how we do life (yes…this does have a point!)
I know a lot of people who are miserable right now…not sad, not disheartened…but MISERABLE. The reason = there is something going on inside of them that is painful…their marriage is struggling, they can’t stop looking at porn, they are WAY overextended financially or maybe they are involved in an affair.
AND…they are being tormented on the inside…seriously, the level of discomfort that they are going through is, at times, overwhelming…and they want relief…however,
What they must go through to get relief is not worth the price of relief in their minds (confession and repentance)...and so they just keep pretending that things are fine…not realizing that to deny the voice of God is to venture down a path of destruction.
The Bible says in James 5:16 that we should confess our sins to one another and pray for one another…in other words…we NEED one another.
It is embarassing to confess sin? YES! It it tough to admit that sin is dominating your life? YES! Will people talk about you and quite possibly make fun or you? YES!!! It’s NOT EASY…but…
To remain in a situation that Jesus is calling you out of will lead to more embarrassment than we could even imagine. I once heard someone say, “The consequences of concealment are far more damaging than the consequences of confession!”
So…do you have people in your life to whom you can talk with…REALLY talk with…about what is going on in your life?
Is there anything about you that, if it became known, would destroy your marriage? You reputation? Your relationship with your children?
You CAN’T live in that discomfort…b/c like I said earlier…to remain in discomfort will lead to destruction.
The conviction of the Holy Spirit is NOT God judging you…but rather Him being merciful!!! Why would we resist God trying to refine us? Answer—it MAY be embarassing…
When in actuality to remain where some of us are will be FAR more embarassing…
SO…anything you need to say or do?