The varied social media platforms available currently allow us to share our lives with an increasingly wider circle of individuals. Our thoughts and feelings are expressed in tweets and Facebook wall posts; our experiences in photos for Instagram and in videos for Snapchat stories. Like anything else, social media has a shadow side with all the good it causes in connecting people. The chance to broadcast ourselves often comes with a related task of deciding what version of our selves to project.
We struggle to share personal mistakes, or that a marriage is going through harder times. It is difficult to lay bare one’s insecurities, fears, or the deepest desires of our hearts where we believe God is active. Playing the projection game for so long we can become distant from ourselves as well as other people in a sense.
One of the promises Christ tells us in the Gospel today is his Spirit will be close to us (“But you know him, because he remains with you and will be in you.”). When he says close, he means intimately close. The Holy Spirit dwells within a human person. Along with our stream of thoughts and feelings, the Holy Spirit is present in our psyche guiding us to open ourselves further to God’s gift of grace. We are able to hide nothing from God. While that might strike fear in our hearts, it also demonstrates the strength of God’s love. God loves us for the things we would not tweet, Instagram, or record for others to see.
When we pray with the hidden areas of our lives, we entrust our true selves to God. This type of prayer is nerve racking at first. Our guilt and shame prevents us from imaging God wants us back. This prayer leads to the openness to experience the risen life of Jesus. It might be the risen Christ life that comes in a resurgence of gratitude, addressing destructive and harmful habits, or more concern for the marginalized in our world. Wherever we experience guilt, shame, and death, we wait for the life that Christ enjoys and shares with us. As we continue to journey together during this Easter season, let us pray with the areas of our hearts the joy of Easter has yet to touch.
Where is a hidden area of your life that you have been timid to share with God? What would help in sharing this area with God?