How do you really feel?

I have a question for all of you. How do you really feel?

In todays society, it is so easy to put on our happy face. We meet so many people, we shake many hands and we give many hugs. We see many smiles but as my father said once, "there are many layers to an onion". I was a kid when he said this to me and I had not idea what he was talking about but now I do.

Our outside layer can be shiny, attractive, and beautiful but what is really going on inside our head, inside our heart. Our we really what we try to appear on the outside or once our layers are pealed, how do we really feel on the inside. Who are we really?

The more people I meet, the more I come to realize that we all suffer from pain, depression, sadness and many times in our life we lose hope. I know that we love to be around happy people but sometimes this can really cause us harm. We as humans try to compare ourselves to others and when we cannot live up to the standards of others, we feel like we have failed. Thank God that He looks at our heart and not at our top layer. God has the power to look under every layer of our life and see who we really our and how we really feel.

Let me tell you who I like to be around. I love to hang around people who do not try to be someone there not. I love people to open up and share their feelings. I love people who will express their faults and allow me to express mine without judgment. I love to hear someone say "I am just a sinner saved by grace". That is all we are, a low down sinner with no hope that God had so much love for us that He have his only son to die on the cross to give the hope of salvation.

There is so much that I could talk about in this blog but let me just say this. If you cannot open yourself to someone, you can always open yourself to Jesus. He will never be to busy to listen. Express to him how you really feel. Peel those layers back and tell him where you are hurting. I know that God already knows but He wants to hear it from you. He wants you to come to Him for help. He wants you to need Him.

One other bit of advice that I can give is this. If you are ever in church or let just say at some christian event and you see someone singing or preaching, don't let you mind trick you into convincing yourself that you want to be like that person. What you need to do is to ask the Lord to help live what that person is preaching or singing because if you could peel the layers back of the person you are admiring, who knows what you would find.

Don't get me wrong, there are some great people in this world. I love Charles Stanley. His messages touches me in a great and mighty way but I know that Charles Stanley does not want me to want to be like him. He wants me to take the messages that God gives him and apply them to my life. I love to hear Bart Miller from Mercyme and Mark Hall from Casting Crowns. I know that these guys are touching millions of people with their music but do I want to be like them or should I apply what they do for the Lord to my life. I know that you know the answer to that question.

Be yourself and let God use you. Walking around with two Bibles in your hand and huge cross around your neck is not going to make you more useful to God. Casting Crowns has a song called Lifesong. The words of the song say "Let my lifesong sing to you". In other words, let your life be a testimony to others. Not who you are but how you live.

Just saying.

Philip Tyson
Samaritan Revival