Boxes

"The best thing that could ever happen to anybody in this room, the best thing, is that your sin would be literally exposed on the five-o-clock news. Your deepest, darkest, most embarrassing sin, the one you work the hardest to hide, would be broadcast on the five-o-clock news. Best thing that could ever happen to you. Best thing that could ever happen to me. 'Cause I am so weary, I am so tired of hiding my sin from people, of deceiving people of who I really am. I just wish my sins would be exposed! I wish there were huge screens that would just show you the truth about me, all the way down to my core, in order that you would know me for who I really was, in order that I could not, that I didn't even have the option to hide from you any more. In order that I would have nothing but Jesus to grasp onto--because that's all I've got anyway." --Derek Webb, off his House album

I got to see Derek Webb live last night, for the first time. Amazing experience. I love it when you can see right through an artist's songs to their life. I was thinking earlier today about moving, since I plan on doing so in a few months (no, not far, just to a cheaper place!). It occurred to me that no matter what your new place looks like, no matter what new home you walk into and set up camp in, you have to take all of your stuff with you. You don't just leave it behind; you pack it up in boxes and carry it wherever you go. Your shit follows you. Even your mail gets forwarded--junk and all.

I think there are a lot of people in life, myself included, who have at some point been under the disillusionment that changing some aspect of their life will eliminate whatever it was before. It's the escape and replace routine. We assume that moving into a place with fresh paint on the walls will somehow keep other people from knowing we just came from a place where the wallpaper was peeling up from every corner and crease. But what if it's not other people we have to worry about hiding from? What if it's ourselves?

That, we can't really do. You're going to have to unpack those boxes sometime....you know?