Keeping up appearances

Becoming genuine and vulnerable in the face of adversity

During the last two weeks I have found it difficult to get inspiration for writing this blog. When it’s flowing, it’s great and I can write an article within an hour or two. When things aren’t flowing, I can get frustrated and tend to lose inspiration. Often this happens because I have been “pouring out” my energy into other things.

My wife and I started to help with running school holiday children’s camps. This has been full of challenges and opportunities for our family to grow, not to mention a very busy season I find myself in with business and travel. Because I was focussed everyday of last week just on the camp I found little time to write. But I also found that when I did have the time I couldn’t think of anything to share.

Towards the end of the week I went for a walk in the bush, hoping to find some inspiration. In the past I have found it good to stop and gather my thoughts and pray. But on this occasion I just couldn’t think of one suitable topic to talk about.

However, over the next few days I did come up with some topics for discussion. In fact, several re-entered my mind which I’ll outline below and hope to write about in more detail very soon!

Poverty and debt

This particular topic is a painful topic because something I have experienced first hand since I was 19 and right into my adulthood. It has been something that has cost me severely and created a lot of chaos in my own life and those around me. Every time I revisit this topic and some of the situations I’ve been in because of poverty brings a few tears to my eyes.

My thinking over the last few days is that if I share about poverty and debt I am going to have to be vulnerable. I’ve come to realise that unless I’m vulnerable and able to tell the truth about the circumstances I’ve been in I won’t be able to help anyone. On the outside, to most of the world I spent 1/2 my adult life trying to project an image of success. Including financial success, career success, family success and having success in other areas of my life. But deep down knowing that this is just a facade trying to “keep up appearances”.

Distractions

Another area or topic I have been wanting to talk about for a while is distractions. How many times have I been distracted by something which has sent me off course for hours, days, weeks or even months? Well plenty of times and if I look back on my life and decisions I can see the number of times I have been significantly distracted. Distractions are sometimes easy to spot and other times it’s not until I’m knee deep in one that I realise I have been led astray. Usually from lack of wisdom and accountability.

Shame

This is painful, but shame is something I’ve had to deal with as a result of how I think others see me and the relationships that have been fragmented as a result. The problem with letting shame influence my decision making is that it has limited me from moving forward several times in my life.

All of these topics are going to resonate with others. Behind our “keeping up appearances” are human beings with raw experiences, some good and some painful. I hope that being able to share my own journey and struggles I can encourage others to move beyond their circumstances and live a Raw Life: One that is filled with purpose and vision.

Photo by Motoki Tonn on Unsplash

I look forward to writing about these in the coming days and also if you have any topics or things you are struggling with please don’t hesitate to join the growing community of people looking to live a Raw Life.