Two weekends ago, my wife and I met some awesome new friends. We drove down to Saint Simons Island, Georgia to attend a conference entitled “The Cure Experience”. We discussed it on our way, and neither of us really knew what to expect. It’s hard to explain, but for quite a while she and I have been sensing a deep-rooted desire for something more in life. We had known about these guys (John Lynch, Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol, and David Pinkerton) from the ministry “Trueface” for years. In short, we have been drawn to their focus on the Gospel of Grace and the freedom we can experience to be real with God and others. We’d read their books and enjoyed listening to their podcasts. But could these guys REALLY be as authentic as they seemed? We were going to find out.
The first night there, we headed to a “meet and greet” with the hosts, the guys from Trueface, and many of the ones who were there for the conference. Being the introverts that we are, it was rather uncomfortable at first. We just needed to warm up, so we began talking with different ones in the crowd. Eventually, we wound up chatting with a couple of the Trueface guys. David introduced me to one of the hosts, Stephen, who is a counselor like myself, and we began our own side conversation as my wife continued talking with David. Later, Melissa made the comment that she was amazed at the questions David asked her. She realized a few minutes into the conversation that he actually wanted to get to know her. He wanted to know the what’s and the why’s to many things about her. There was a sincerity as he shared freely about himself as well.
That was just the beginning. As we sat through the conference throughout the following day, these guys shared what it is like to live in relationships with each other that are authentic. While there are many things I would love to share here, one thing in particular has been something that has reverberated every day since that weekend. An overpowering theme kept revealing itself to me over the course of each of our sessions. Bill made a comment that summarizes it well…”The degree to which I trust you is the degree to which you can love me, no matter how much love you have for me.”
From what I can tell so far, I took this truth to heart more than I ever have in my life. There is so much about myself that I try to hide from others. Even those closest to me sometimes do not get to know parts of me. The tragedy is that the degree to which I hide is the degree to which I block love that others might want to give me. Others can only love me as much as I trust them to get to know the real me…good and bad.
And then…something happened that I will never forget. Upon arriving home, I succumbed to my Father’s urging. He had been nudging me all weekend, lovingly. See, there was something about me that I had never shared, not even with my wife. It was something I buried deep, in hopes that I would never have to address it with another human being. However, realizing full well that I was refusing to trust God by staying in hiding, I subsequently decided to take a leap and fully trust myself with my wife. I shared my deep, dark secret with her. I was terrified before, and definitely after as I was staring at the floor awaiting her response.
To my surprise, I was met with a kiss and a hug. There was even a smile on her face at one point. Are you kidding me? I was expecting a much more negative response…perhaps even disgust. A short while later, she revealed that she felt more love between us than she ever had. Unbelievable. God turned something I felt shame about into a trigger for me to receive even more love from Him and my wife. This happened once I was willing to trust myself with someone. I essentially let her give me the love she already had for me. What a wonderful reflection of God’s own love for us. It’s there…always. We experience it more and more as we trust Him with ourselves, regardless of how messy things get. Grace truly is amazing.
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I highly recommend picking up a copy of the new revised version of the Trueface guys’ book, The Cure.
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