Holding Mangled Hands

I’ve never put very much weight in any of my dreams, because they’re usually pretty whacky, but I think it’s time to reevaluate.

The other night I had a dream that at first didn’t hit me the way I see it now.

I was in a room with a bunch of people. Some people I knew, and some I didn’t; but everyone’s hands were deformed. They were all misshapen in different, unique ways. Some people’s looked normal at first, but when you got close, you could tell that they weren’t. Others were blatantly abnormal.  At first no one wanted to acknowledge this fact, until one man, sheepishly stood up and said something about his hands being weird, and he knew everyone could tell. Then slowly, one by one, people started acknowledging that their hands were also a bit off.  After the first man’s admission, others gradually began to say, “No, I understand, look at mine!” In the dream I got up and walked away for a bit and when I came back everyone was sitting together holding hands. They didn’t exactly know the right way to do it, because everyone’s hands were strange and different. But as they acknowledged their insecurities and imperfections together, they began to share the struggle and encourage one another.

When I woke up, I mostly thought that was another strange dream, and left it at the fact that I have lots of those.

The more time that passed and the more I began to share about my life and God’s faithfulness, as well as hearing about a friend’s testimony having an impact on those around him, I began to contemplate the significance of living life in community.

All summer long I shared my struggles with pretty much anyone who would listen. I knew I wasn’t strong enough to face things on my own. I lived life transparently and showed the people around me my hurt and they biblically carried my burdens with me. It was refreshing, uplifting, and freeing. I never felt like I had to walk into a room full of people and be something I wasn’t. They knew me and were able to love me, perhaps better than if I hadn’t been real with them.

As I walked through a dark valley I was encouraged and blessed by friendship of others, and my openness allowed others to have the same freeness with me: truly a blessing.

Here’s the best part: when God takes you through a valley, there comes a time when he brings you out of it, when your prayers are answered and you spirits lifted. And that time has come for me. My fervent prayers have been answered and now I have about a million people to call and share more of my life with.

Here’s an even cooler part: Now that I have taken the time to share and hold the deformed hands of my imperfect friends, as they held mine, now I can share with them the faithfulness God has shown me. That his promises are as true as he said they would be! The more people you let in on the bad, the more you have to tell about the good when it comes, because it will come. Because I shared life with all those people, and because God is faithful, those testimonies are now impacting more than just me, they affect people, who then affect more people.

We are meant to live this way. At first it might not seem like the best thing to hold out your weary, disturbingly unattractive hand to your neighbor, but as soon as they pull theirs out of their pocket and you see that it’s just as mangled as yours, then you can glorify God together, living life the way it was intended.

Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2