Nudity has never bothered me. I was raised a good christian girl so there was a moment in my life when it did bother me. Like other areas of my life this phase quickly left and I was once again ok with my naked human body. God did give them to us after all and they only became awful after Adam and Eve ate whatever fruit it was they digested. They not only digested the fruit, they had brought sin into the world.
I dress modestly out of respect and comfort for myself, my husband and my family. There is a level in my mind where I want to be covered. If I was standing in the lobby of our church I would want to be clothed. But, there will always be an element that loves nudity.
One of the reasons I love nakedness is because it’s real. You cannot hide your wrinkles, your arm flaps and you can’t tummy tuck things away when you’re naked. You have to be real, it’s where the truth lies and I love truth. Now, if you come and bulldoze me, there is a great chance I will recoil, yell back at you or walk away. Depending on who you are and what you have just thrown at me. When I have had time to cool off and process, truth will be brought to light.
I appreciate nudity in every area of my life. Emotions, my physical abilities, and the reality of where I am at in life. If I can understand the truth that is happening around me then I can change or begin to change that which need fixing. Whether it be me, my relationship with Mark or the kids, or something in my business life. I will to the best of my ability fix the thing I am able to change.
Or so I thought. Then the last two years happened. Yup, yikes. There were still people behind the scenes who I stood completely naked as a jay bird in front of and not only allowed but asked to please walk the path of hell with me. They did and continue to walk it with me. They cheer me on and shout, keep going. They yell and cheer, rip those clothes off!
Today, I have asked myself, as I have several times since seriously writing for the blog, how naked am I going to be? Can I rip my clothes off for all of the world to see. When I rip my clothes off, I still have to go to church, I still have to see people at Hy-Vee and Wal-Mart.
Will they laugh at my wrinkles? Will they look at me like they know a secret and pity me? I would like to tell myself it doesn’t matter. But, if I’m going to be naked in front of you, my wrinkles bother me. They shouldn’t, but they do. So I stand in front of you, naked and it bothers me to do it.
But, here’s the thing. If someone else becomes brave and joins me in being naked, hallelujah. If together we can laugh at our imperfections, if we can embrace ourselves and see the beautiful mess of a person we are, praise the Lord.
I’m messy, big chunks of my life are ugly (at least they feel ugly to me), I know to you on the outside it’s brave and courageous. I’m sure chunks of it is brave, but it doesn’t feel brave, it feels scary and vulnerable. But, I know if someone else were doing this same exact thing I would high five them, bring them a coffee, a donut, kombucha, chicken noodle soup and whatever else I could bring or do or be in the moment.
You know who inspires me to be naked, drink coffee and swear? Kelly Gau! I love that woman more than she will ever know. I am so thankful for the many moments she has had in her shop, helping others to begin to be ok with being naked. Yet in her own way, trying to figure out how to be ok with being naked in a world that hurts. Kelly, I want you to know it has been so freeing to let the swear words fly! To let the truth and ugliness of the world around me fly out. Yup, freeing I tell you.
So, my followers. I’m going to get even more naked, sorry, not sorry! Don’t worry nothing inappropriate, at least in way of anyone taking off their clothes. Blah, no one needs to see that. There is a time and a place, but it’s not here, nope, we’re still a family friendly website.
But, we are going to go deep and we are going to take you with us. We are going to share the ugly, awesome stuff God has been doing in our lives. We are going to open all of our closets, dump out our desk drawers, open up the shower curtain and let you see how God is remodeling our hearts, our lives and our family.
God literally smacked some sense into us and we are listening with our ears wide open. We are watching with great expectation at the awesome, glorious work he will do through our messy selves.
Not everyone feels comfortable with complete nudity and that’s ok, I get it. Honestly, I have had to work up to this as well. I have been honest and blunt since birth (ask my mom, she would laugh if you even mentioned this to her, but she still loves me. Isn’t that crazy, but she does).
God in his mercy clothes us, he wraps us in warm animal clothes (they can be non-animal if you need them to be). But he loves us. Maddie is named after a song Rich Mullins wrote called, “Madeline”. Here is is below.
Madeline fusses and Madeline laughs
The angel who watches says, “Hey look at that”
There’s your faith, mountains will shake
Cuz God gladly bends just to hear Madeline when she prays
Madeline stretches and Madeline kicks
The angels in heaven say, “Hey look at this”
There’s your faith, mountains will shake
Cuz God gladly bends just to hear Madeline when she prays
And the only angels that I’ve ever seen
Look like tears on the face of the sky
Though it sure breaks your heart to see heaven all streaked up
With sorrows like theirs, still you know all the while
From where cobbles shine golden like emeralds shine green
From where gems stud the streets and the walls
God looks out a window at us just to see
If anything frail as a sparrow should fall
Madeline fusses and Madeline laughs
The angel who watches says, “Hey look at that”
There’s your faith (there’s your faith)
mountains will shake (mountains will shake)
God gladly bends just to hear Madeline when she prays
God gladly bends just to hear Madeline when she prays
Copyright 1997 – mullinsong
My favorite part of the Song says, “God gladly bends just to hear Madeline when she prays”. Powerful, he doesn’t kind of, if he has to, he GLADLY bends. He gladly bends for Mark’s and Robin’s too. He gladly hears you and he cares.