Brasso. Saturdays in our house were filled with the pungent odor of Brasso. I complained incessantly of the assault on my nostrils. Weekly my mother would polish all the brass tables in our house even though the tables didn’t look dirty to the naked eye.
“Why do you have to polish the tables every week, mom? They aren’t even dirty!” I groaned.
She would simply dip the rag in the Brasso, rub the table with circular motions, and then show me the rag. It was filthy dirty. The polished outward appearance of the tables was a lie. The dirt was hidden well, but it was still there. My mom knew this. So, she polished the tables every week. She desired that the outside appearance of the tables be a true reflection of the table.
Very often we are the same. Outwardly we are polished to perfection. No one would even suspect the hidden piles of pain that tarnish our hearts and souls.
How many of us have donned masks to hide the truth of our lives? Too many. Society instructs us to put on a “good show.” Never let others see your pain. We’ve spent our entire lives stuffing our pain inside. Not even aware of the deadly infection of dis-ease spreading throughout our bodies. We choke on pain’s bitterness, swallowing its bile to slug it out in life.
That is not God’s plan for our life. He knows the plans He has for us. Plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11) He desires that we be set free from that inward hidden pain. He never intended for us to be one way on the outside and another on the inside. Jesus came that we might be whole – body, mind, and spirit.
If you’ve spent time in your life hiding your pain behind a polished outside, please visit us at the Glennon House. Trained prayer ministers will join you in your journey of freedom from that pain. It is time to walk into the plans that God has for your life. Plans to prosper you and plans to give you hope and a future.
originally written February 24, 2009 for the Healing Thoughts Weekly Newsletter
Until next time blessings and healing