So I received a lot of feedback from last’s
week’s post “perfect isn't real: the foolish art of hiding your crazy.”
I must say that I am proud and a bit
relieved to know that so many people I’m connected to are resonating and
considering the same things of being authentic.
My friend, Lindsey, who has been a wonderful and lovely mutual sharer of crazy for a long
time, asked a great question that I’ve been chewing on.
How do we go about being as honest as we can with strangers or others who aren't yet "safe”?
Permit me to be so bold here for a moment with some real talk for my single friends. Until that future spouse of yours has bought the keys to the whole house, the bedroom should stay locked. It’s really tough to catch up on the bonding of the porch stage and regain the boundary of the living room, if someone has been given free reign of every part of the house. Single or married, set that room aside for the most intimate relationship you will ever have—a place where no other relationship will go. Guard that room from any other relationship. Be selective. This is where your biggest crazy is shared and protected by someone else and you share and protect theirs. This is not a room for just anyone.
So choose your safe and healthy pace for building depth in any relationship, but be authentic at every level that you invite someone to see. And remember to be patient and gracious as the other person is doing the same with you.
Relationships of all kinds aren't about who hides their crazy the best, but who is managing it, protecting it, bettering it, and sharing it with trusted someones. Because we all need that friend or two who will help us open the door to that scary back closet.
How do we go about being as honest as we can with strangers or others who aren't yet "safe”?
She went on to profoundly capture
the struggle we find ourselves in:
Some of our crazy is only safe
with those who won't turn that knowledge into a weapon...but if we never get to
a place of feeling fully or at least mostly seen by others, then the devil's
lies of "they don't really know you..." gain strength.
Knowing my friend speaks great
wisdom, I’ve continued to wrestle. Not everyone has earned the right to
know all of our stories. The truth is our crazy is not safe with everyone
we meet. People who over share their life stories and wounds too quickly
may not be guarding their heart as they should be. Scripture encourages us to
guard our hearts, but also to not be a dish only clean on the outside.
So how are we honest, but not completely compromised?
I’ve spent a lot of time on the
"closed off" side of this spectrum, to the point where it kept people
from getting to know me. The summer I worked at camp, a fellow counselor
said to me in frustration, “you’re like Fort Knox..everybody knows there’s gold
inside but nobody can get in.” I don’t think I was being dishonest in
that season, but just very guarded.
In effort to better connect with
others and build relationships, I’ve dabbled on the “too open” side. I’ve
been so excited about building relationships, being affirming and pursuant, and
letting people get to know me, while making them completely overwhelmed.
There are people who didn’t
protect my heart, my feelings, or my crazy and I got really hurt because of
it. There are others I was so distant from that they gave up trying to
know me.
I admit that I’m still trying to
figure this stuff out, especially as experiences continue to shape how much I
swing back and forth on this social pendulum. Awhile back, though, I was
given an image that has helped me immensely to figure out how I’m honest and
also protecting myself.
Picture yourself as a house.
Imagine away: the yard, the paint color. How many rooms? Is there a
porch or a fence around the outside? My house is a cozy small home with a
grayish paint and white trim. It has a big front window and a porch with
white furniture. A small white fence runs around the yard with grass and
flowers. What’s yours look like? Can you picture it?
Now, someone new is coming over. Will you go out to meet them at the gate and chat with them across the fence? Will you invite them to sit on the porch with a glass of iced tea? Are they welcome to step inside to the foyer right away or even have a seat in the living room?
Now, someone new is coming over. Will you go out to meet them at the gate and chat with them across the fence? Will you invite them to sit on the porch with a glass of iced tea? Are they welcome to step inside to the foyer right away or even have a seat in the living room?
Some people are completely
comfortable having new faces come right in and sit on their couch. Some
might want to meet on the porch a few times first. You may decide to only
chat over the fence with some. Others may get to skip ahead to the foyer.
There may be months before anyone gets to see your kitchen and years
before someone is invited into your room or your back closet full of the craziest
crazy. You know...the closet with the random junk you don’t know what do
with. It exists in our real homes and in our persons. So here’s the
deal. This piece that gave me freedom and encouragement in all of this.
You get to decide.
You’re the one who gets to decide
who is allowed in the yard, but not in the kitchen. You get to decide how
quickly someone gets to progress or not progress into your home. You get
to decide if someone is never allowed within the fence again. You choose
who stays in the yard and who is always welcome to sit on the couch. You
get to decide.
BUT...here’s the twist. No matter the level you allow
another into, let it be honest. Don’t try to convince someone that
the big mansion down the street is you. Don't spend your life savings
paying a gardener for a perfectly manicured front lawn and leaving your home
inside in shambles. When you invite people into your home, leave your
Rock and Roll posters on the walls of your office. Leave the encouragement
you wrote to yourself on the bathroom mirrors. If you're blaring N'Sync
in the house, listen to it on the porch, too. If someone is allowed all
the way to the kitchen, offer them a Capri-Sun from your stash in the fridge.
Ask them to take off their shoes before entering an area that requires
extra gentleness or leave their shoes on where there's broken glass or lost
Legos in the carpet. People who make it to your kitchen and don't
like what they see, will either make themselves at home in the
mess, roll up their sleeves and help you do the dishes, or find themselves
uninvited. That's how it works. You need people in your kitchen,
but not everyone in your kitchen. People mocking, destroying, or stealing
from your house get asked to leave. People who take the time to love the
process of being welcomed will cherish your house and join you in its
protection and care.
Permit me to be so bold here for a moment with some real talk for my single friends. Until that future spouse of yours has bought the keys to the whole house, the bedroom should stay locked. It’s really tough to catch up on the bonding of the porch stage and regain the boundary of the living room, if someone has been given free reign of every part of the house. Single or married, set that room aside for the most intimate relationship you will ever have—a place where no other relationship will go. Guard that room from any other relationship. Be selective. This is where your biggest crazy is shared and protected by someone else and you share and protect theirs. This is not a room for just anyone.
So choose your safe and healthy pace for building depth in any relationship, but be authentic at every level that you invite someone to see. And remember to be patient and gracious as the other person is doing the same with you.
Relationships of all kinds aren't about who hides their crazy the best, but who is managing it, protecting it, bettering it, and sharing it with trusted someones. Because we all need that friend or two who will help us open the door to that scary back closet.
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