Get Real: Karly.

{I’m so excited to introduce you to my dear friend, Karly!  I can’t express how much I just love her writing.  Her words have blessed me and challenged me on more than one occasion, and I’m sure that they will bless and encourage you as well.  It’s an honor to share her words with you today, friend.  If you enjoy her writing or her heart, be sure to check out her blog here.  God bless!}

Hi.
 
I'm Karly, and I am so honored to meet those of you I am not acquainted with! I hope this gives you a moment to slow down and have a cup of tea or a cookie with me. And not just the mask of me, but the real me. That is what this is all about, right?
 
Here we go. 
 
I do not often reveal my deepest struggles to other people. I do not often reveal that I don't reveal my struggles. 
 
I could ramble on and delay, I really could. I want to. But you need me. The real me. I wasn't created and redeemed to cower in fear, to hide. It takes trust I sometimes feel I don't have. 
 
We all struggle in our faith. I do. I have had questions, uncertainties, doubts about His goodness sometimes. Could He really be good? Could He really love me? Why me, of all people? "We are straddling the line between faith and fear at all times because our souls belong to another place while our foolish hearts call this world home." Courtney penned these words to me, as we spoke of fear. 
 
I am afraid, sometimes that God couldn't really love me. 
 
My instinct is to keep this and other struggles to myself, these questions, these hard questions, these sins I struggle with. I do usually. But sometimes, He breaks me down so far that it spills out to friends, near and far, in person and on paper. All the blackness, all the shame, because I fear. It bursts forth, spewing about me, revealing my heart. That is what happened today.
 
He was and is right there, holding me, hemming me in behind and before. What did my friends do? These friends He blessed me with? They looked into my eyes and told me that He is still shining through. Despite my brokenness, selfishness, pride, He has His way in me. 
 
Because that is the real problem: I sometimes believe the lie that even He cannot redeem me. I believe He is not big enough, strong enough, good enough. 
 
The beautiful truth weaved throughout the responses of my friends? They say many things, but all the words point to one theme: He is everything. He is good enough, strong enough, big enough to redeem even me. 
 
Even me.
 
Even you. 
 
Us. 
 
He loves us. And praise Him, He isn't finished with us yet. 
 
I get so bogged down in the fact that I am not where I think I should be, but I should praise Him for where I am! I want to grow, but when I allow it erode my trust in Him, I suffer most, because it is a lonely place to be. 
 
"All the walls you built up are just glass on the outside

So let them fall down,

there is freedom waiting in the sound...

this is where the healing begins...

when you come to where you're

broken

within

the light meets the dark." 

Tenth Avenue North

{If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.} Psalm 139: 11-12

{Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.} James 5:16

 

 

"The One the wind 

and waves obey 

is 

strong 

enough 

to save 

you." Tenth Avenue North

 

So I guess I hope that you let your walls down. It is petrifying, terrifying. But He has you, and nothing that happens is out of His sovereignty. Trust Him even when you do not think you can. It just might be the start of healing.