"Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent."
Revelation 3:17-19
There's a core message here that we don't really want to hear, and that is that we are broken. We desperately *want* to be perfect and do everything right, and be smart and funny and awesome, and we do actually have some glorious moments, but we also really, really screw things up sometimes... alienate other people, make really harmful mistakes, lie, cheat, steal, act stupidly cruel, make overwhelmingly unwise choices, etc. We read about the prodigal son, or the unwise half of the ten virgins, or about the guy who buried his talent, and we shake our heads, not realizing that all of us are on the wrong side of those stories in a lot of ways. We wonder why the ancient Israelites made super bad choices and Laman and Lemuel resorted to violence, but we do the same things in at least some part of our lives. We're like the Emperor in the story of the Emperor's new clothes. We often think we're all that, but it is an illusion. We're faking it, and too often *not* making it.
I think God here is trying to tell us, hey... please, look at yourselves. You need an intervention, and some help, and I can help you, but first you have to see it. See that you are broken.
It isn't about making us feel horrible about ourselves, because although we might need a moment of that to realize that we need help... God isn't here to accuse or condemn. He isn't going to make us wallow in our admission of being less than we pretend to be. Instead, he offers us the chance to actually *become* that ideal person... actually much better than any ideal we had in mind. :) He tells us that we don't need to pretend anymore... we can actually BE great, be heroic, and even super-heroic, but the path to all of those things is through him. He offers us real clothing to replace the illusion we were wearing, and offers us the real treasure and insight that we may have thought we already had.
Today, let's go to the Lord and talk with him about our failings and our weakness, and ask for help. He will help us change and become more amazing than we can imagine, if we can be willing to see the truth of ourselves and put in the effort to follow his instructions. Only He can make us whole.
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