Here we go again with another “Five Minute Friday” post! To learn more about “Five Minute Friday” (FMF), check out the linked 
image here. Basically, each week there’s a word given for you to write about. You start writing, no back-tracking, editing, etc. At the end of 5 minutes, you stop. Then you post it, and share in the community of words that were birthed during these 24-ish hours. It’s cool stuff.
So here’s this week’s response to the word: “ bare ”
Unfortunate, but true – with today’s culture and accidental access to overly revealing flesh fests (we censored Beyonce at the youth group Superbowl party – poor girl forgot to get dressed for a big concert….), we’ve seen much more of the human body laid “bare” before us than is necessary. But I remember the first time I saw someone completely bare for the first time in person.
It was my freshman year in college, and I was at a campground with some friends (don’t worry, this isn’t going where you think it might), and we were enjoying a normal night of hanging out. The attractive guy was playing guitar while the girls were singing, and somewhere in the midst I was poking sticks in the fire.
I’m a ridiculous morning person, especially when camping in a tent. When the sun comes up, my body follows. So while my friends stayed groggy in the tents, I wandered down to the lake nearby to talk to a guy who was up fishing earlier than I knew people fished. That’s when I looked over – there they were. An entire family – mother, father, kids, all washing themselves completely naked in the handpump in the middle of this campground.
Maybe it was just a fathers’ poor planning, and the family decided to do something silly to encourage their dad. But it seemed to me, this was a family in need. A family that was just barely getting by, living in poverty at a campground just outside a major city.
I remember the brokenness of the world I felt in that moment. I remember what I saw was not simply the nakedness of these human beings…but the nakedness of our world in need. For one of the first times, even after rough times growing up, real injustice was crying out…uncovered….for all the world to see and hear.
May we live as people willing to see and hear the cries of those laid bare all around us. May we clothe the naked with justice….
Okay, so I went 6 minutes there. You’ll have to “bare” with me….haha. (see what I did there?)
words from wick 
Hi Wick,
I got your “bare” point (wink)…what a moment to witness, and to have a sense of compassion for a family going through such hardship…like how you went from Beyonce to “clothe the naked with justice…” still wrestling with how to do that because one can always do more…
I like what Katie wrote from my wife’s favorite book, “Kisses from Katie” – “…I just keep filling up my little eyedropper, keep filling it up and emptying my ocean one drop at a time. I’m not here to eliminate poverty, to eradicate disease, to put a stop to people abandoning babies. I’m just here to love.”
Wow…most of the world would just think it was funny that a family was naked out in the open. Not many would think it is a sad testament to what the world is teaching.
Thanks for reading, Mindy!!
Those moments, they really change us. So grateful for those moments – even the hard ones. Thank you for sharing this.
For sure they do….and new ones daily. Thanks for reading, Fiona!
Thank you for sharing your post, that would have been heart breaking to see. Have a blessed day. Tara.
thanks for stopping by, Tara!!
Poverty is bare before us all the time, how often do I walk by, unaffected? Great use of the word here! And as always, you made me smile:)
Thanks Christina! May we continue to be challenged in our walk, for sure…:)
Hi Wick
You are touching something that I also feel strongly about. Those that are hungry, poor and naked looking at all the opulence of a world that at times hardly save them a thought. Never mind provinding in their dire need!
Much love
Mia
How we respond to “the least of these” is very close to our Father’s heart…thanks for stopping by, Mia!!
It leaves an impression on our hearts, doesn’t it. To see the world in raw form. laid bare. So desperately in need of Jesus…
clothe the naked with justice….and mercy. yes.
Happy Friday to you, Wick!
Thanks Nikki, always good to have you stop by!! 🙂
Grace is all sufficiency. May each one come to know the Source of All; baring all to Him!
Definitely. Thanks for stopping by!!