What We Don’t Reveal Can’t Heal

This is a subtitle from Christine Caine’s book “Unashamed.”

I’ve been stuck in a season of complacency; or at least that’s what I’ve labeled it as. In my “complacency,” I stumbled across this book and decided it was something I needed to read. I think I was drawn in by the tagline “Drop the Baggage, Pick up Your Freedom, Fulfill Your Destiny.” Maybe I knew that I had been carrying around some baggage and that I wanted to be free from it? Maybe I felt like it was time to confront those things even though it was something I didn’t think I really wanted to do.

Here’s the deal though. Before I started reading this book. I had already started dealing with my “baggage.” I found myself in situations where I ended up being 100% emotionally vulnerable—revealing things I never planned on revealing and to people that I never planned on revealing them to. What I found was acceptance, love, understanding, and freedom. Not judgment, pain, and regret. The latter were fears that were from Satan and what I found was the former—which is God’s love, grace, and healing.

Was it pain-free? Absolutely not. Emotions resurfaced, hurt resurfaced, and some things were brutally painful to revisit. Past wounds that I thought had been healed turned out not to be healed at all. Some wounds led to painful additional conversations that needed to be had. But beyond the hurt and the pain I found true freedom. As Christine says in this book: “But to be healed, we must acknowledge all of our wounds. The journey from shame to freedom and a full life in Christ must be a blatantly honest, nothing-hidden voyage.” For the first time in my life, I’ve been blatantly honest, hid nothing, answered all questions asked of me regarding my baggage, and have ripped off the bandages and opened all of my wounds—thereby exposing them to the light. Ephesians 5:13: “But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.”

So tonight the realization hit…I have not been in a season of complacency. I’ve been in a season of healing—of dealing with my baggage, dropping it off, and then walking free. I’ve been walking through this season so that I can be an image bearer of God rather than a shame bearer—so that I can fulfill my true destiny, live the life HE wants for me, and walk in the freedom and experience true peace.

What we don’t reveal can’t heal. Per Christine: “The blood of Jesus has healed you. The blood of Jesus has set you free. Jesus’s was wounded for your healing; he bore your shame so you could live free (1 Peter 2:24). God sees. He knows. He forgives. He redeems. And he restores—regardless of what you have done during or what has been done to you. He is calling you to come out of hiding and into his grace—his unconditional acceptance.”

Will you bring your baggage to light, walk in the freedom, and fulfill your true destiny? Only you can answer that—but He is waiting for you with open arms. He can heal all wounds. Be an image bearer, not a shame bearer and walk in the light and in the freedom.