What good will it do for a man if he gains the whole world but forfeits his own soul?

Mathew 16:26
The meaning of earthly existence is not, as we have grown used to thinking, in prosperity but in the development of the soul.

Alexander Soltzhenitsyn

Reading in my daily devotional book today (Jesus Calling) I was reminded of this simple, essential fact written from God’s perspective: ” when you follow Me  wholeheartedly, you will discover facets of yourself that were previously hidden.  I know you intimately and far better than you know yourself.”

Hidden facets??!!  COOL!  I’m all about that.  I love noticing how people reflect their Creator-God like the edge of a diamond reflects a rainbow of light.   Each perfectly poised, simple plane  of a jewel that brings a myriad of colors, so many that we can not even count or distinguish them.  That’s amazing.

I went on to read Mathew 16, quoted above, and I am struck by how well it applies to all kinds of life situations. In fact any time we are not living true to who we know God made us to be, any time we sacrifice our identity, our calling, our heart or our soul to others (well intentioned or not) we are betraying the reflections of God that we uniquely are called to be.  Get your head around that.

When I went to 2 Corinthians 3:17, 18 it all started to come together for me.

Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom (ed. freedom to be who He designed us to be)  And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

I love that phrase, “unveiled faces”.  In the context it refers to how Moses had to veil his face to approach the holiness of God.  It references Jesus as the uncoverer of the veil, the one who eradicated the distance necessary between God and man.  I love all that.  But even more I can see to a new level of depth in the verse.  The process of soul-gain mentioned in Mathew above is a process of unveiling.  If you haven’t read the book True-Faced you might want to check it out.  It is when we are real with ourselves and with others that we become “unveiled” in the truest sense.  When we fall in faith on the truth that at our deepest level we were created in beauty and purity to reflect something of God that no one has ever been able to see clearly before, we become free in the Spirit.  Jesus unveiled us at the cross, and as we continue to lose the world (our ambitions and common sense) for soul-gain he unveils us still farther.  Till naked in His presence we become ultimate reflections of Him (“transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory.”)

I don’t know if it all makes sense to you but I’m about to step into a whole new level of risk based on this.  And I’m ready, so ready, to continue unveiling.    You can’t walk on water if you don’t get out of the boat.