Jodie Foster made this \u00a0statement last night at the Golden Globes, “I want to be seen, to be understood deeply and to be not so very lonely.”<\/p>\n
Deep down we all long to be authentic and have authentic relationships. Yet so many of us are living a life behind masks\u00a0because we are not the same on the inside as what we project on the outside.\u00a0We project an image to suit the crowd we are with.\u00a0We live in fear that someone will see the real \u201cus\u201d\u00a0and won\u2019t like what they see.\u00a0Simon Tugwell in his book, The Beatitudes: Soundings in Christian Tradition,\u00a0<\/em>writes: “We hide behind pretty faces which we put on for the benefit of our public. And in time we may even forget that we are hiding, and think that our assumed face is what we really look like.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet deep down there is the hunger to be fully known.\u00a0Understood. \u00a0Accepted.\u00a0Loved.\u00a0Valued. \u00a0\u00a0We were created for that.\u00a0God created humans in His image \u2013 both male and female.\u00a0Unified.\u00a0Complete.<\/p>\n God\u00a0created the man out of the dust and provided a perfect environment and purpose for the man.\u00a0He had everything he needed.\u00a0God looked at the situation \u00a0and did not think it was good for the man to be alone\u00a0so created a partner for him. \u00a0She was literally part of him\u00a0 – there was intimacy from the beginning.\u00a0We in Genesis read, \u201cAnd the man and woman were both naked and were not ashamed.\u201d\u00a0Why would they be ashamed? They were part of the other.\u00a0I am not sure naked is limited to flesh \u2013 as in no clothes \u2013 but in intimacy of soul and spirit<\/p>\n What does it mane to be Naked?\u00a0Without protection, no covering, defenseless.<\/p>\n They were totally free with each other.\u00a0Adam and Eve didn\u2019t feel the need to be defensive. No one was judging them hence there was no shame. Theirs was not a complicated\u00a0complicated relationship\u00a0they were living in perfect unity with each other and with God.\u00a0There were no longings,\u00a0no injuries,\u00a0no wounds,\u00a0no fear,\u00a0no worries.\u00a0They were complete as He created them.<\/p>\n Can you try to imagine such a time\u2026I\u00a0wonder what it was like\u2026<\/p>\n To be totally free,\u00a0unashamed,\u00a0content,\u00a0joyful in living and purpose.\u00a0Our original design was wholeness, completeness.\u00a0We were created completely whole.\u00a0We lacked nothing.<\/p>\n When Eve was tempted by Satan he made them think there was more than wholeness.\u00a0When he said, \u201cYou surely shall not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God knowing good and evil.\u201d (Genesis 3:5-5 NAS) He made them believe God was holding out on them.<\/p>\n The question he planted created a longing\u2026they began to think they were not whole, complete.\u00a0Was there something more?\u00a0They wanted it.<\/p>\n When they disobeyed God and yielded to the temptation to be more than God created them to be, they lost their wholeness;\u00a0they became broken.<\/p>\n Satan lied to them and they bought it.<\/p>\n And through them we are all fundamentally broken.\u00a0We have searched for wholeness ever since – it is a lifelong quest to fill up the hole left by their sin.<\/p>\n Some seek to fill it with money,\u00a0success, fame,\u00a0sex, activity, relationships –\u00a0there is no end to the ways we seek to meet the longing for completeness.<\/p>\n