Hi friend. We love talking about being exposed, don’t we. If you are anything like me, it brings about an automatic desire to fix: “hey chatgpt, how do I get my life together?” Journal prompt can lead to more journal prompts, conversations seeking out the answers can lead to more questions, and the all too familiar voice of not having it together enough (which ultimately feels like we ourselves are not doing enough or are not enough in general) leads to an overall blah. Friend, the exposure is hard. 

A few months ago, I began asking the Lord to walk me into a journey of making me well. After all, if I feel led to start writing about this with the Lord, don’t I want to continue doing this myself? It felt a little something like this: you are just starting out your new hike and you look at the trail laying ahead of you. It’s beautiful! There are wild flowers, green grass, and birds chirping. You are ready to go all in! But somewhere shortly after, you realize that you don’t know where you are, it’s harder than you thought, and you didn’t bring the right shoes. Well, in complete honesty, that’s where I am at. I don’t feel equipped in the exposure, I don’t feel prepared to encounter whatever is hiding in the bushes, and I feel I may have underestimated how hard this journey is. Well I do have good news peering through the clouds, we are in good company. Thousands of generations of Christians have encountered this same moment: and it is good. This is where dependence happens.

I was writing this to the Lord a few weeks back. I was looking at all the unknowns, the mess, and I was asking God why. “Exposure,” I heard press strongly through the anxious thoughts in my mind. If this feels like where you are sitting or where you have been, know our loving and graceful God is mightily working. If we ask for God to make us well, do we not need to see the areas we struggle. And if we truly want healing and freedom, do we not need to know what it is we are being restored from? It is messy.

Dear daughter of the Most High King, I want to speak strongly to this: if you are feeling in the middle of exposure, it is so important to look at where your feet are planted. 

If you are feeling in the middle of exposure, it is so important to look at where your feet are planted. 

Matthew 13 with the parable of the sower is a guiding light in this. Jesus shakes things up. It’s his style. And thank goodness for that, without Him disrupting comfort we wouldn’t be able to truly walk in the freedom that living a life of being made well offers.

But when it does happen, do we know what a gift is before us? When he is reorganizing, do we sit back and let him or try to hurry up and throw down the best option that we see in front of us to assemble some sort of the idea of order. Let us intentionally plant well. Matthew 13:3-8:

“A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 6 but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears,[a] let him hear.”

When the exposure makes us feel blah or uptight or anxious, let us not plant hastily.

Matthew 14:28-33 is so important to remember in seasons of exposure as well.

“And Peter answered him, ‘Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.’ He said, ‘Come.’ So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, ‘Lord, save me.’ Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, ‘O you of little faith, why did you doubt?’ And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’” (ESV)

Let’s take a moment to notice that he began the walk to Jesus on water. That doesn’t just magically happen (no matter how hard we may have tried growing up)! It came with awareness and a resolution. Jesus was in front of him! He answered Jesus’ call to come walk on the water towards him. It came with faith to take the first step.

We can be resolute in walking towards the Lord. This determination holds whether walking on water or in the mess. Like the beginning of the new hike. It is also important to make note of the fact that Peter did know that he was encompassed in wind and possibly stormy weather. In fact, it had drifted his boat out far from the shore (v. 24).

It wasn’t the storm that caused him to sink because he already knew he was in the storm. However, he was truly exposed to the storm after taking the first step. He was surrounded by it. He knew it would be there, but when he stepped out, Jesus let him see the storm. It was when he forgot that Jesus was right there in the storm, in the mess, and in the exposure that Peter began to sink.

When Jesus so kindly exposes us as well, and he is doing it so He himself can settle things down His way. But we need to keep our eyes locked on Jesus and not the storm. Let Him move things around in our lives. Let it be messy. Look to the one in command of the waves, the sea, the wind. Look to the one who is walking on it with you, giving you the power to continue walking towards Him. And remember, He will always lift you up.

Let us pause and take it all in—let the exposure happen. There’s no need to rush this season. Slowly but surely, His plans will unfold. Slowly but surely, we will find our footing. Slowly but surely, we are being refined.

The mess is okay. You don’t have to have it all together—and honestly, it’s better when you don’t! It leaves room for Jesus to do the all-powerful, earth-shaking, community-redeeming work that He does best.

Habakkuk 2:3 offers hope for this very season of mess and exposure:

“If it seems slow, do not despair, for these things will surely come to pass. Just be patient! They will not be overdue a single day.”

Friend, let your healing rest in His timing. Plant well. Keep your gaze fixed on Him in this season of exposure. He will turn the mess into a masterpiece.

Scripture taken from the English Standard Version (ESV), © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.