Embarrassing Video Footage!!
Hi there!
Hows your week gone? Hope you have a brilliant weekend ahead of you!
I'm typing this from my hotel room in Buffalo, NY. I flew in tonight ready for a conference in the morning where I'm speaking and singing. Yesterday I fixed my video camera - it had a technical bug problem with "Quicktime, Mac's Tiger and audio recognition" (all way over my head!!) but a tech specialist helped me and the camera now works great again and video is sucessfully uploading to my laptop! So here begins more frequent video blogging!
I'm sure with every blogger what we all want is to really, truly see inside their daily lives and find out the embarrassing things about that that no one really knows! So one of mine is this.. I have a horribly messy car! Old coffee cups, shoes, random items that I havent seen in months... they all live in my Jeep.. and its awful! So I thought I'd let you see!
YIKES!
On a deeper level, isn't it funny how our natural inclination in life is to hide so much of who we are from God and from each other? We so often present our "good side" and hide away our fears, pain and struggles... Like a messy car that looks clean and sparkly on the outside, we can present a life that looks amazing, yet God knows what's really going on - and most of us have stuff hidden in the trunk and footwells of our lives that He needs to clean out! We can even accidentally perptuate that in church culture, by telling everyone to walk in victory and success, so that no one feels able to speak up about their problems and issues.
I want to be someone who lives a life that is wide open, who shows both victory and weakesses... We all need to be trasnparents and real... As some of us do that, we give others permission. I think the community back in the days of the Book of Acts were very real and transparent. They shared life 24:7 so there would have been nowhere to hide! I think we need to get back to those kind of days, where we really let each other into the nitty gritty of daily joys and tears. Sunday church can be such an easy place to show up with a smile as most of modern day life goes on behind closed doors during the week.
Lets live wide open lives and be real...lets dare to tell people our failings and ask for prayer in the hope that we will spark them into the same level of transparency. Lets be a generation who knows they are frail and made of dust, and who in humility reach out to one another for help and accountability. Now that kind of community could change the world!
"What do you think?"
Love,
Vicky
i think thats completely true. theres nothing worse than seeing other christians around you who you look up to, who seem so perfect, and here you are struggling away! its so easy to pretend. but i was thinking, how good a witness is it to be able to say, 'yeh, im going through a rough patch at the moment, but i believe God is in control.' i think when non-christians see that kind of faith, real faith, something inside clicks. belief in jesus donst mean we suddenly dont have any problems!
so yeh, be real, pray, share things, be accountable. and let people see the wonders God is doing in your ordinary, everyday life xx
Posted by: Lucy Geale | May 17, 2008 at 03:41 AM
Hey there's only a couple of things I can say on this blog .
I totally agree and AMEN!!!
With Christ's unconditionnal love.
Posted by: Rebecca | May 17, 2008 at 04:27 AM
Gosh...I don't feel so bad now when my car gets a little messy...
You're brave for showing the mess off...
Dale
http://dalebest.blogspot.com
Posted by: Dale Best | May 17, 2008 at 07:18 AM
How convenient, a huge trashcan on wheels! Why didn't I come up with that myself :D
I'm sorry but I had to laugh a lot watching the video, but take comfort in the fact that I'm a messy person too ;)
About showing our good side: when I heard Jason Upton sing "Dying Star" for the first time I broke down in tears. That message was so powerful! It's were God says:
"You've got your best man on the front side
You always show your best side
And evil's always on the other side
You say this is your strategy
But son I hope you take it from me
You look just like your enemy
You're full of pride"
It made me aware of my own pride and my 'jeep full of garbage' that kept me from being real to people, myself and God.
"We better get on the threshing floor" if we wanna be real and accountable.
Posted by: Martin | May 17, 2008 at 09:13 AM
clean your car! xx
Posted by: Lucy Geale | May 17, 2008 at 02:56 PM
Come to think of it, I really need to clean out my car!
So, Vicky... any harder to drive on the other side of the road?
Posted by: Steve | May 17, 2008 at 06:58 PM
You know, Vicky, they say if just one person's life is changed by sharing a dark secret like that, then it's all worth it. I must confess I also am a car clutterer and you have just convicted me to go out and make that change, so I will be headed to my car in the morning with a trash bag on the way to church and it's all thanks to you! If only we could clean up our spiritual trash that easily! I don't think I have a trash bag that big, but maybe it's little steps daily to clean out the clutter of our walk that makes progress. Thanks for the whimsical look at a real challenge. As always, I love your blog and your music. Keep on keeping on.
Posted by: Traci | May 17, 2008 at 11:32 PM
Vicky, I'm shocked!
Shocked that you don't find the time to clean your car regularly amidst writing a book, writing and recording an album, traveling all the time, and living a little bit of life in between...
:o)
You got me to thinking, and I put those thoughts up on my blog today as I didn't want to tax your hosting servers with a novella-sized comment...
Posted by: Jonathan | May 19, 2008 at 01:59 AM
I'm right there with you! Wow, didn't think anyone else's car looked like that but mine. Between 3 kids and survival on starbucks & juice boxes, it is a giant receptical. Oh, and I clean out the trash everytime I fill up w/ gas. But it still gets gross. This weekend I thought something had died in it. Could never find the source and yet it is gone today. Scary!
Your thoughts on transparency are good. It's hard when you are trying to stay positive and inspire others who are struggling to keep their chin up, etc. I posted on some not so fun realities in my life and my readership fell. (I had so few to begin with - ouch!) Anyway, I agree, I love it! And I think I will clean out the car today at the park.
Posted by: Amy (Beyond JEMS) | May 19, 2008 at 11:13 AM
Vicky,
Right there with you - car and being real. My car is atrocious. With your inspiration, I showed it off at www.godseekerblog.com. I also joined with you in challenging myself and others to be real - with each other and with God. He's been dealing with me on this for the past couple of weeks. Thanks for you music, for leading us to worship, and for being real on this blog.
Posted by: b.rizzle | May 19, 2008 at 07:51 PM
DUDE! You were NOT joshing! Geez.
This week... You, me, and Bec... we are having an intervention!
AutoSpa in Cool Springs. My treat. Wow.
Nothin' but love. :)
Posted by: Chad Jarnagin | May 19, 2008 at 10:25 PM
looks like my car... I should prolly clean it out on my day off. thats it, I'm totally doing it! maybe I'll take some pictures or video or something. :D
Posted by: Linz | May 19, 2008 at 11:54 PM
wow, you really need to clean out that back seat! there's not even little kids piling up the trash back there.
Posted by: Hale-Yeah! | May 23, 2008 at 12:03 AM