Will the real Rita please stand up?

Today's Precious Prodigal's Post = http://bit.ly/1PPfjZl

Like what you see?

Please "Like" & "Share" with your online friends.

Want to read more? Go To: preciousprodigal.com

= = = = = 

Psalm 139:23 “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:”

A popular television game show called “To Tell the Truth” ran for 20 years, starting in 1956. In that show, celebrities asked questions of three challengers and then tried to guess which one was telling the truth. At the end of the show, host Bud Collyer would say, “Will the real [central character’s name] please stand up,” and one of the contestants would stand. You see, only one was the real person; the other two were imposters.

While that may have been amusing as a game show, it isn’t nearly so amusing in real life, is it? And I’m not talking about trying to figure out when my prodigal is lying to me but when I’m lying to myself.

I like to think of myself as reasonable, spiritual, and kind. But is that always true? The “real me” isn’t the one who sits three pews up on the right side of the church, who is the writer of spiritual things, who speaks to groups and encourages women. The “real me” is the person I am at my worst…when my computer crashes, when I’m stuck in traffic on I-20, or when I’m at home with only my family. The “real me” is who I am when I’m angry, hurt, or disappointed.

You’re probably thinking, “But you don’t know what I live with every day! You don’t know the pain I’m in or the pressure I’m under.” And you’re right. I don’t. I only know the pain and pressure I face myself.

However, there is one thing I know for sure. It isn’t outside pressure that makes the juice coming out of a lemon sour. That pressure only brings out what was there in the first place. According to Jesus, those ugly words we said when we were angry at or hurt by someone came from the “abundance of our hearts.” (Matt 12:34)

It’s not easy to be patient when we’re pressured on every side from the insanity of living with a prodigal. It’s a tough walk, and I won’t insult your intelligence by telling you that will change. It probably won’t.

But exactly how effective has it been for us to rage at the prodigal? To purposely say unkind things? To strike out or even to strike back? All those things have done is to make us even more miserable. And that misery isn’t necessarily the prodigal’s doing. We’ve created some of it ourselves.

If the problem is within me, the solution is there too. It begins by asking God to “search my heart and know my thoughts” (Ps 139:23) and then to purify them. Be warned that if you ask God to show you what you need to change in your own life, He will. And you probably won’t like what He shows you.

But if we’re ever going to do the hard work of changing the way we react, we first need to stop lying to ourselves. And when all the masks are gone and someone says, “Will the real Rita please stand up,” I want the person who stands to be someone I’m not ashamed to be.

Challenge for today: What might happen if we, just for today, dropped all the masks we wear and get real with God? What if we asked God to change us into the person we really want to be?