Who do you allow around your Bends?

I swim 3x/week at a really nice indoor pool.  But despite how well maintained everything is, there is one thing that unsettles me.

In the locker room, the entrance to the showers is just five or six steps away from the entrance to the pool deck.  And there are always a couple of female life guards sitting watch just a few feet outside the door.  As I make the birthday-suit walk to the showers with my towel and shampoo, I am all-too aware of the door just steps away and the people just outside that door.

But what keeps them from seeing me and being scarred for life is... a bend.

You see, the door to the pool deck is a 90˚ turn from the hallway.  I am VERY thankful for that ninety-degree bend (as are those on the pool deck!).  But this physical bend got me thinking about the personal bends humans have inside.

Internal Bends

We ALL have bends.  We have things inside that we don't want others to see.  We think it will scare them or scar them or repel them away from us.  So we bend.  We lie.  We "adjust" the truth.  We keep hidden certain areas from those around us.

Now sometimes these bends are actually good.  For example, confessing every sin you've committed since 7th grade on a first date isn't exactly going to help you get a second date.

But more time than not, a person has built so may bends in his or her private life, that he or she no longer knows the way out. They no longer know who they truly are.  We get lost in our own mazes.

What we usually need to help us emerge out of these internal labyrinths is the hand of another human - the RIGHT human.  At the pool, the door marked "Men" helps filter who should walk around the bend and who should remain on the pool deck.  We all need similar "signs" to let the right people in our lives, to walk around our bends, and to know the real us.

My Bend Guides

For me, the right kind of people are my wife and a few trusted guys.  I know I can open up to them and not be judged or condemned.  Instead of shaming me for my mistakes, they love me, take me by the hand, and walk me to Jesus.  They remind me of the power of the gospel, and that Jesus can make my paths straight again.  I don't have to hide behind lies, deception, or other bends.  I can be free to be me before Jesus, who takes away all the shame-filled unloveliness.

Your Bends and Guides

How about you?

• Do you have too many "bends" in your life?
• Does anyone know the real you?
• Do YOU even know the real you?
• Who do you need to let in to your private locker room?
• Who is safe enough to expose your sins to?
• Who do you allow around your Bends?
• Who and what will lead you to Christ?

"Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed." (James 5:16)

Photo credit: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/669882

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