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A Morning View From the Patio

In the Wizard of Oz there really is no Wizard with great power. The curtain gets pulled back and there is just an old man manipulating the equipment to portray a great wizard with power. In reality he is just another man who is lost on his life journey and giving the image of someone he is not. This does not diminish who the man really is, in fact he is a very nice man with good intentions. But the curtain hides who is really is to save him the embarrassment from whatever he is hiding. 

Very often I live behind such a curtain. What about you? We may be ashamed of our past. Perhaps it is to protect others or even ourselves from the pain of our hidden lives. It could be that we are positive images of life models and we know what we really are under the surface. It may be likely we are hiding behind the curtain to save our integrity. I know that I wonder what people would really think if my curtain were to be yanked back. Sometimes we just flat out struggle and find it safer to just hide. 

I want to be clear, we do need to have a safe spot behind the curtain. It is important to be private and discreet. We must not air our dirty laundry. But we need to not live perpetually behind the curtain just hiding from our lives. I have found it important to have a few who love me and encourage me to share my curtain stuff with. We also need to seek forgiveness from God and confess our sins to one another so that we do not hide behind the curtain, but we can peacefully live behind our curtain. 

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. 
                                                                                                                - James 5:16 NLT 

Peace,
PB

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