A few years ago, I was in Colorado Challenge with some amazing young women from our youth group. One night, after a particulary powerful talk from our speaker Jeff Klein, we all went off to the wilderness amidst the mountains under the starlight to talk to God. To really talk to God. Not just to say a few routine words and end with an amen, but to say what was on our heart, to maybe yell silently at him, to wrestle with him like Jacob, and to listen.
That night when the girls all gathered in one of the rooms to share and to pray, we had a naked party.
It isn’t what you think.
We stripped away pretense and masks and hesitations and walls and were vulnerable together. Ourselves. Our thoughts. Our emotions without all the layers that gets in the way of being open and real. We called it our naked party.
When my mom died, I felt like I was walking around naked with my grief. I couldn’t hide the fact that I was unpredictable in my tears, that sorrow would overcome me at a comment or a flash of a memory, that my life was different than it was before in ways I never imagined. Some people would pretend I wasn’t “naked.” They would talk to me as if nothing happened. Some would quickly avert their eyes and and find an excuse to get away from the exposure. Some would try and cover me up with a blanket statement. Others would stand by and accept my naked grief for what it was and love me just the same.
I recently read a book that reminded me of both Colorado Challenge and that time of grief. It is from Sex God by Rob Bell. There is good stuff in this book. really good. Even though it began in a talk about sex, it shows what true nakedness is, like Adam and Eve before they realized they were naked.
Here is the excerpt.
“It’s easy to take your clothes off and have sex. People do it all the time. But opening up your soul to someone, letting them into your spirit
and thoughts
and fears
and future
and hopes
and dreams…
that is being naked.”
When we are willing to share more than what is comfortable, we give of ourselves. When we don’t shy away or cover up or take offense and instead stand with the person when someone is exposed due to grief or joy or whatever emotion it is that has taken hold of them beyond what they can cover up, we celebrate fellowship in the way God intended in the garden of Eden.
Someday we will have a “naked” party in heaven.