Here We Stand Exposed :: Essays Papers

Here We Stand Exposed â€Å"There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known†. –Matt. 10:26 Human interaction is as common to most of us as breathing. Stop and consider your typical day—imagine each face you pass on the street, each passing conversation, each miniscule interaction. â€Å"Hey, how are you?† â€Å"Doing well, you?† â€Å"Good.† For most of us, the number of people we have this friendly non-conversation with alone is too many to remember, and the actual number of people we generally come into contact with throughout the course of a day is too large to approximate. And yet for many people the line of how much to reveal of themselves in each of these interactions is a hazy one. We walk away from conversations such as this, though perhaps pleased to have seen the person, sometimes wondering what would have happened if we had told the truth of how we were doing at that particular moment. This idea of Exposure vs. Concealment is a common thread throughout the writings of CS Lewis. Though he never directly addresses this topic, there is much wisdom to be gained from his writings on the issue. Throughout Till We Have Faces, A Grief Observed, The Problem of Pain, and many of his other writings, we can find many underlying clues to establishing a balance in our degree of self-concealment before God, others, and even ourselves. In the next few pages I will attempt to form a clearer picture of the example God gives humans in relation to the interactions and the co-existence of the two seemingly opposite practices of Concealment and Exposure. When I initially set out to write this paper, I began with a mindset to prove one of these actions to be of greater good than the other. I assumed that if the two oppose one another, it would naturally follow that they be mutually exclusive to one another, for to oppose implies an eventual conqueror: thus, a natural superior and inferior. However, after beginning my attempt at this proof, I found myself presented with another—and somewhat surprising—conclusion: that these two, in truth, depend on one another for their own existence, and that both are necessary to achieving a healthy degree of transparency. Let me outline this discovery. 1. God’s interaction with Himself as a glimpse of God’s interaction with Man: