Regina 
Have you ever felt misunderstood? I can see your messy bun now bobbing as you nod your head in firm agreement. I think we have all felt that sting, but we do not dare to talk about it. If we are brave enough to speak up about the ways life has left us feeling like maybe there were deficiencies so monumental that the Lord could not overcome them and use us; if we talked about those parts of who we are that just leave us feeling, well, misunderstood, I think we’d be sitting here, hopefully over piping hot coffee from somewhere other than Starbucks, for an extraordinarily long time. Then again, it could just be me, but I’m bold enough here to think there just might be more than one of us.
To be misunderstood is pretty much akin to a knife cutting straight through the core of you. Some of us have been bleeding for a long time because others misunderstood us. When you’re misunderstood you feel like something is wrong with you. I’m not talking about a sin issue that needs repentance and correction, I’m talking about the thing that sometimes happens when you share your heart on something and someone takes it the exact wrong way. I’m talking about the moment you were brave enough to let someone in, and they were not careful with your heart in the slightest. There are moments in life that are just difficult to bear up under whether it’s undue criticism, unnecessary slander, uninvited gossip, unwelcome rejection, the list could trail on & on without doubt. When you live misunderstood the foundation of your life may easily breed contempt, insecurity, unforgiveness, fear, and the whole other laundry list of unpleasant adjectives that are currently filling up your mental space right now.
Maybe this is too personal, too honest, but I feel like maybe if we could be brave enough before the Lord to tell Him the truth of how we have felt from time to time or maybe all of the time, just maybe, the Lord might send His Word (through the reading of Scripture, through me speaking the Word to you, and you speaking the Word to me) and He might just heal us with it. Our healing might be on the other side, wait, no, our healing is most certainly on the other side of our honesty both in the confessing of our sin. What sin? The sin that the image bearer God made when He created you isn’t useful to the Creator even when we are in right relationship with His Son. Now, let there be no misunderstanding here (every bit of the pun intended), I am without apology saying….
Our lives must be conformed to the image of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. There is no other way to life than to believe with all you are in the obedient death of the Son of God on a cross for every sin and faith in the singular hope of Jesus Christ’s stunning resurrection from death itself. The Lord did not recreate us for any purpose He condemns in Scripture. In this truth, you & I can have an honest chat on how in life there are many moments that the word misunderstood perhaps just fits your situation in that particular season to a perfect T.
I could tell you how I have been misunderstood as a black young woman in a predominantly white context. I could tell you how I have been misunderstood in ministry, gulp. I could tell you how I have been misunderstood in being passionate. I could tell you how I have been endlessly misunderstood in my sickeningly sweet (I suppose) optimism. I could tell you how I wished I was different so I wouldn’t be… misunderstood. Problem is you’re going to be wishing on something that’s just not coming, because the Lord isn’t after us becoming someone we simply are not, He is interested in making us clean so that we can be useful for Him and become who He made us to become. There is a difference between repenting of sin and repenting of who you are. Let me give you an example here.
I used to feel the need to apologize for my optimism, to clarify it. Why? Because it comes off fake, not real, or so I’ve been told, and in a culture that worships “authenticity” I often didn’t appear authentic in an acceptable way. Now, isn’t that ironic? Well, as it turns out a cheerful in disposition isn’t sinful. My best friend kindly encouraged me to not repent of joy (thank you Brittney), for there was nothing to repent of. Now, I’ve got me some sin to repent of on the daily, just like you. Please don’t misunderstand (hm, I’m starting to overuse my pun here; I’m sorry a little bit but not enough to hit delete). But there is no need to adopt a melancholy disposition in order to fit in and appear authentic, which hilariously would be most inauthentic. Just like I don’t require Britt to act like bubbly me. Good night, y’all, we have got to understand that the Lord made us uniquely wonderful and different on purpose. How would we sharpen each other if we were exactly alike? And seriously how annoying would it be if we were all alike and how very little would be accomplished?
The music of Andrew Peterson, whom I would liken to a modern hymn writer, and the music created by Lecrae, a hip-hop artist who cleverly points others to Christ are vastly different, but the world would miss something significant if either of them were trying to be like the other. Why I am providing such an example? I want you to think about why we misunderstand others. What’s going on in that space? I would like to suggest that often we are expecting people to be like us and when they inevitably are not we make assumptions about them and those assumptions often lead to misunderstanding.
Now, we are always going to call each other out for sin, and we are even going to sharpen each other and rub off some of the abrasive edges of our personalities and styles if you will, but we are not going to dog on the Creator’s intentional work in how He made us. We are going to yield to the process of becoming holy without caving to the temptation to please man.
The thought of being misunderstood has made me silent when I should have spoken, timid when I should have been bold, afraid to share songs or poems I’ve written for fear of not fitting in. I could write on, but I think you understand.
There’s so much more I have to say here, and I feel like we might be on the precipice of something good. When I catch wind of it, it smells like sweet… freedom. Let’s gather here again soon, sweet friend.
