This morning when I was getting ready for my weekly women’s bible study, my daughter came to me and asked if her hair was brushed “good.” I took a glance at it and noticed it could use a little help so I grabbed a brush and started going to town. She had been brushing it for quite a while (for some reason it takes her FOREVER to brush her hair because she gets distracted) with a “nice brush” as we like to call them at our house and it wasn’t really going anywhere. It made it look better than before, but it never really got all the tangles out. When I came in with the “mean brush” the tangles came out, but, unfortunately they didn’t go away without some discomfort.
As I was brushing her hair it dawned on me that this is what our lives are like many times. We have so-called tangles in our lives from various things, either from the past or just all the crazy stuff that’s going on around us and we like to try to get rid of them ourselves. We know that if we fix it by ourselves that we can control the level of discomfort that is going to take place. The problem with this is that we, most times, will use the “nice brush” which only makes our hair look better, but not really get all of the tangles out. We are unable, without the help of Jesus, to get the difficult tangles out of our lives. If we allow him to come in with the “brush” that hurts a little, or sometimes even a lot, we will see things become untangled much quicker and better than we could ever do it ourselves with the “nice brush.”
So many of us have lots of deep hurts in our lives…things that nobody even really knows about. We get hurt by a friend or a family member or some other reason and we seem to bury the problem or pain and hope that it will eventually go away. It becomes a “tangle” that God wants to remove from your life so that you can be whole. It’s not always easy to look at the past issues or even deal with present problems, but God cares about YOU deeply. Sure, He cares about where you are going in life, who your spouse might be or even your next step in your career, but God deeply cares about seeing you become whole. He wants you to live a life of freedom. He wants to touch those deep parts of who you are and “get the tangles out” so you can be completely open and whole in His presence. His desire is for deep intimacy with us so that we can trust Him with whatever is going on in our lives. I believe that He wants us to walk through the pain with Him, not just bury it or try to push it aside. That never fixes anything.
I know for me, when God uses His “brush” it might hurt, but I’ve never felt so much love and even joy while he’s taking me through the process. When I’ve come out on the other side, my life is even more beautiful and free than it ever was before, and, on top of it all, I’ve experienced a new level of intimacy with Jesus that will never ever be taken away from me.
Trust God to get the tangles out of your life…ask Him where he wants to start, and he will show you. It is so worth it!
