{"id":251,"date":"2017-12-23T12:56:40","date_gmt":"2017-12-23T12:56:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greatadventure.carterclan.me.uk\/?p=251"},"modified":"2017-12-23T12:56:40","modified_gmt":"2017-12-23T12:56:40","slug":"unmasked-embracing-the-broken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greatadventure.carterclan.me.uk\/?p=251","title":{"rendered":"Unmasked: Embracing the Broken"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u2018How do you feel now?\u2019<\/p>\n

I stand there, my head bowed, my body stiff as I contain the pain raging inside. What do I say?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018Are you feeling better?\u2019<\/p>\n

I bite down on my lip. \u2018A little, yes, thank you.\u2019<\/p>\n

But inside I am berating myself. That\u2019s not true, is it?<\/em> I don\u2019t feel a little better at all. If anything, I feel worse, the pain made somehow more obvious by the prayer. I feel just that bit smaller, that bit more invisible, the real me hiding behind the reality that once again, I am not healed. Once again, I have let somebody down, someone who wanted to pray with me, to see me set free from the pain which holds me in fierce bonds.<\/p>\n

You see, this is my mask.<\/strong> This is the face I put on. It\u2019s the face I have put on all my life, growing up with a degenerative lung disease. And it\u2019s the face I sometimes put on with God, too……<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Read the rest here: Embracing the broken<\/a><\/p>\n

I’m guest blogging over at Claire Musters’ website today, all about how we sometimes pretend and how much authenticity matters. I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences.<\/p>\n

Claire has recently written an amazing book, Taking off the Mask.<\/a> ‘Too often we hide our true selves from the world behind masks we have carefully constructed, but this is not how God created us to be . Through her own personal story Claire Musters shows how it is possible to take off these masks and live a freer and more authentic life.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018How do you feel now?\u2019 I stand there, my head bowed, my body stiff as I contain the pain raging inside. What do I say?…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[130,127,120,114,132,131,133],"class_list":["post-251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-authentic","tag-broken","tag-disability","tag-disease","tag-healing","tag-mask","tag-prayer"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8T2j8-43","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":37,"url":"https:\/\/greatadventure.carterclan.me.uk\/?p=37","url_meta":{"origin":251,"position":0},"title":"Line in the Sand","author":"liz","date":"August 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I haven't blogged for a good while. 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