Many of us might have been following the news pertaining to the members of the judicial community in India trying for a long time; not to make their financial assets public in spite of an increasing demand to do so. That they eventually agreed was not so much a voluntary act in the usually understood sense of the term; rather it was more of a capitulation to a growing chorus of public opinion. Though a large number of the establishment seemed to side with the judges – the government tied to introduce a bill that would make it unnecessary for the judges to disclose their worth.
The wide acclaim with which the Supreme Court’s final decision that the judges would up details about their assets on the Supreme Court website shows one thing very clearly; we love transparency. Whether it is in public life, or insurance forms, or anything else. We like things out in the open. No secrets hid. In broad daylight. We dislike darkness and those things that limit our vision.
As Christians, I often wonder as to how transparent are we? How transparent am I? I wonder how we can expect to reach the world - to give our light to the world - without being transparent. Jesus was transparent. He lived a transparent life. He did not gloss over things; He did not shy away from confrontation. He talked about the hard stuff, and He took the challenges presented Him without a second thought.
The Apostle Paul was able to say:
“Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:2
Essentially Paul is saying that he has chosen to live a transparent life—to practice a transparent ministry. Transparency is the watch word for anyone in leadership today. Whether he or she is a CEO, a politician or a judge there is a cry from the bottom to the top for transparency. We do our ministry in the world of blogs and Facebook. Long before the high tech transparency was foisted upon us, Paul taught us that the only truly legitimate way to conduct one’s ministry is with transparency in your life. Our lives and ministry should be an open statement of the truth. How else, as he writes in verse 2, could we “commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.”? This is the ultimate transparency — that we practice our ministry in the presence of God.
A part of the whole struggle with transparency is the struggle that we have in admitting or hiding our own weaknesses and struggles. This is of course a very real battle. I am of course very aware of my brokenness, but I am also aware that there’s nothing in me that commands the admiration of the world. But that does not mean going around with a low self esteem. There’s a difference between a low self esteem which comes from an inferiority complex, some sort of neurosis and a true understanding of who we are, that then allows God to work through us and shows to the world the face of brokenness, of holiness lived in brokenness, transparency enables ,me to say that God has shown me, I cannot do it by myself, but his light in me manifests itself and I give him all the glory.
To live a transparent life is to be as completely real as possible. It is to truly be “in the world but not of it”. It is to meet people where they are at, instead of expecting them to somehow find their way to where we are. To connect with others on their terms, in a real way. To be yourself, instead of wearing the masks we put on as often as we seek our place in the world. To not be afraid of others seeing our flaws. For nobody is perfect.
To live a transparent life means that not everyone will like us. In fact, some people will hate us outright. We may lose our lives. But transparent lives are passionate lives, full of movement, and they are worth whatever time we are given on this earth.
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