#512. Thinking you’re naked.
Apr 1st by JonI don’t want to brag, but I’m pretty awesome at applying band-aids. And make no mistake, there is an art. Because if you go too quickly and unpeel them the wrong way, they stick to themselves and you end up with a wadded up useless mess instead of the Little Mermaid festooned bandage your daughter so desperately wants to apply to a boo boo that may in fact be 100% fictional.
Half of the injuries I treat at the Acuff house are invisible or simply wounds of sympathy. My oldest daughter will scrape her knee and my 3-year old, realizing the band aid box is open will say, “Yo dad, I’d like to get in on that too. What do you say we put one on, I don’t know, my ankle. Yeah, my ankle, let’s pretend that’s hurt.”
But sometimes the cuts are real, like the day my 5-year old got a scrape on her face playing in the front yard. I rushed in the house and returned with a princess bandage. As I bent down to apply it to her forehead, her eyes filled up with tears and she shrunk back from me.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I don’t want to wear that band-aid.” She replied.
“Why? You have a cut, you need a band-aid.” I said.
“I’ll look silly.” She answered.
Other than her sister and her mom, there was no one else in the yard. None of her friends were over, cars were not streaming passed our house and watching us play, the world was pretty empty at that moment. But for the first time I can remember, she felt shame. She had discovered shame. Somewhere, some how, this little 5 year old had learned to be afraid of looking silly. If I was smarter, if I had been better prepared for the transition from little toddler to little girl, I might have asked her this:
“Who told you that you were silly?”
I didn’t though. That question didn’t bloom in my head until much later and I didn’t understand it until I saw God ask a similar question in Genesis 3:11. To me, this is one of the saddest and most profoundly beautiful verses in the entire Bible. Adam and Eve have fallen. The apple is a core. The snake has spoken. The dream appears crushed. As they hide from God under clothes they’ve hastily sewn together, He appears and asks them a simple question:
“Who told you that you were naked?”
There is hurt in God’s voice as He asks this question, but there is also a deep sadness, the sense of a father holding a daughter that has for the first time ever, wrapped herself in shame.
Who told you that you were not enough?
Who told you that I didn’t love you?
Who told you that there was something outside of me you needed?
Who told you that you were ugly?
Who told you that your dream was foolish?
Who told you that you would never have a child?
Who told you that you would never be a father?
Who told you that you weren’t a good mother?
Who told you that without a job you aren’t worth anything?
Who told you that you’ll never know love again?
Who told you that this was all there is?
Who told you that you were naked?
I don’t know when you discovered shame. I don’t know when you discovered that there were
people that might think you are silly or dumb or not a good writer or a husband or a friend. I don’t know what lies you’ve been told by other people or maybe even by yourself.
But in response to what you are hearing from everyone else, God is still asking the question, “Who told you that you were naked?”
And He’s still asking us that question because we are not.
In Christ we are not worthless.
In Christ we are not hopeless.
In Christ we are not dumb or ugly or forgotten.
In Christ we are not naked.
Isaiah 61:10 it says:
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness.
The world may try to tell you a thousand different things today. You might close this post and hear a million declarations of what you are or who you’ll always be, but know this.
As unbelievable as it sounds and as much as I never expected to type this sentence on this blog:
You are not naked.
Comments
This is a wonderful post. I hadn’t looked at that verse quite that way before and I really appreciate the insight.
I adore how God uses these special, yet simple, moments with my children to reveal Himself and bring me closer to Him on a daily basis.
Thanks again for sharing this beautiful post.
Thank you.
this was incredible. thank you so much for elaborating on this particular verse (:
I really really needed that!
somf
I witnessed a "God, booty, God" moment last night – watching Tyler Perry's "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" (focusing on redemption & freedom through the Lord), followed by an advertisement for some booty program, then followed by an advertisement for the channel's Sunday morning Gospel programs. Delightful!
Band-aids are definitely more desirable when they have cool things like princesses or zebra stripes on them.
The shame of nakedness was brought on in that moment that sin entered the world. And Christ, our Victor over sin, clothes us in His righteousness. (what a glorious thought!)
Thanks Jon for that sweet reminder.
It’s almost 10 p.m. and I’ve been turning this post over in my head all day. Beautiful.
God continues to use you in big ways. I needed that. BIGtime. Thank you.
Thanks Jon. I really love this. And the list of poisonous questions can be added to “ad nausium”.
I guess mine would begin with:
Who said it was ok to throw you away?
[I also love some of the creative word verifications.
ungerspe.... when you don't know which you are more, hungry or thirsty]
Wow. Simplly. Wow.
This one didn’t really do much for me but thanks anyway.
I can’t have children; this was a painful reminder.
When you can answer who the who is, it’s amazing to know who He is.
Thank you for today’s post. It is just what I need to hear today in this moment.
Jon,,
That was exceptionally excellent and beneficial for the church.
Thanks,
Michael
I come to this blog for the humor…but I so appreciated the truth and power in this entry. Thank you so much for ministering to us!
Thank you.
I just started reading your posts, and they are wonderfully touching. This post in particular was deeply profound, and I appreciate you for it. Thanks again.
WOW!!!!
i’m not saying wow…i think that’s been covered on the posts. Not sure if you heard this message but John Lynch who wrote True Faced gave a message I had given to me entitled “The Gospel Gamble” and he talks about this very thing- the idea that shame is first introduced in the garden and the ripple effect of that event reaches into our lives today as the devil (oh yeah, I middle fingered him there) tries to remind us of our failures and our past and how we’ll never measure up. Really enjoyed the post, it’s a message that has transformed my life, that God accepts me, Me and all the crap that comes along with me, and infinitely loves me and has Clothed me with a robe of righteousness. How awesome is that?
My friend Sandi sent me a link to this post – it is awesome – something I need to remember and I am adding this blog to my list of “Every Day” sites. Thanks. . .
I've been thinking about Adam & Eve and shame a lot over the last couple of days, and your entry once again was a powerful reminder that I am not naked. Thank you.
I just want to share what my good friend reminded me, along with your post:
Jesus took all the blame, all the shame, and all the pain as He was physically, emotionally, spiritually stripped down. He refused the vinegar that would have lessened the pain of the nails, of being slowly suffocated to death. When people challenged Him to come down and save Himself, He stayed up to save us.
Utterly naked, He refused to hide. So that …
In Christ, I am not forgotten, because He was forgotten by the Father.
In Christ, I am not ugly, because He became uglied and disfigured by the beatings.
In Christ, I am not naked because *He* became naked on the Cross.
Thank you, Jesus!
I needed this today. Thank you.
Thank you for this, Jon.
Strange I saw something about being naked pop up on facebook. Strange b/c 2nd time today I saw the word naked. The 1st time while researching the Passover, Cruxifiction, Resurrection. There was scripture that had a man running naked.
Yeah, I could give you the address, naw look it up.
WV: Sairater
Powerful stuff. I needed that!
Thanks.
thank you.
Beautifully said. God bless you.
What a beautiful post.
Jon, this post was exactly what I needed tonight – I missed yesterday’s post and wasn’t even going to go back and read it; my intentions were to just read today’s, but OF COURSE the title caught me off guard
Anyway, yeah God planned that. Man, He’s smart.
Also, Stacey – you said pretty much exactly the question I was thinking. Who said our expectations of ourselves are God’s?
thanks for this post
wow. I needed to hear that.
which is pretty ironic considering that I just spent an hour redrafting an article for a youth newsletter on the exact same subject. (well, almost) apparently God wanted to tell me as well as them.
THANK YOU FROM THE MOST PRECIOUS PLACE OF MY HEART…….THANK YOU FOR SHARING!
This is one of the best blogposts I’ve read in a long time and I am so glad one of my friends pointed me in your direction. I will remember this one.
that was great. thanks.
This made me cry
Probably because the people who have said all those things to me are the ones I love the most and whose approval I always seem to be seeking. It’s hard never being good enough 
Thank you, maybe one day I’ll be able to believe your post
xxx
Thank you so much for this.
i usually don’t like your serious posts. i come here for a laugh, because life, uh…sucks. (the christian way to put that is to say “because life in this world is so broken.”)
but this one was good. i mean, your other ones are good too. but this one i just needed to read. so anyway. there’s that. good job.
I’m confused… they were in fact naked. Wasn’t the problem rather that they were ashamed? The final statement seems to miss this point.
What wonder is it to be clothed and unashamed? But isn’t someone who is naked and aware though not ashamed truly beautiful, pure, and commendable?
Another blogger recommended this post on his blog. All I have to say is this:
Simply brilliant.
By far one of the best blogs I have ever read.
Wow. This brought tears to my eyes. Something I desperately needed to hear. Thanks,, Jon.
Best post on here yet. Your writing is so inspired. Keep it up, bro. God is on the move!!
I have been on vacation, so catching up on my reading. Just now watched the YouTube link from funniest prank phone call (laughed so hard my stomach hurts), then to this – shedding tears of thankfulness that God loves us so much and gave you the great gift of communicating so very well so that you could remind us of His love. Thank you.
My, oh my. You seem to have a very deep perception of what we all feel when shame enters our lives. Thank you for sharing.
http://www.stevenfurtick.com/uncategorized/who-told-you-that/
Steven Furtick rips off Stuff Christians Like!
lol Rita I watch Furticks blog and wondered the same thing.
Rita and flyawaynet -
Whoa. I saw that guy at Catalyst last year and he was great. I take it as a huge compliment that he dug this post.
Jon
Jon -
You absolutely shame me with your generosity. I’d be on that guy like white on rice! (In Christian love, of course. Always in love…)
Misty -
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t fire off an email to my mentor for some advice and encouragement, but for all I know a staff member posted that and he has no idea where it came from. I can’t front about how the goal of this site is to clear away the clutter of Christianity and then act out in hate against someone like that.
And let’s be honest, I lifted the concept for this site from Stuff White People Like so I’m really in no position to try to punk someone about originality. Maybe God wanted to use that guy’s blog as a platform to get that idea to other people that don’t read this one.
I stand by my previous statement that he is an amazing communicator and tore off the roof at Catalyst last year.
Jon
Thank you for this. Thank you, thank you, thank you.