This happens to me frequently when I read the Bible. I am going along at a good clip, but then something trips me up. It literally feels like I have stumbled over a bump in the way. As I pick myself off the ground and look back to see what that was, I stop to consider it more closely. Then, I walk over and take it in my hand. I turn it over this way and that. I start to notice what it’s like, and before I know it, I’m standing there marvelling.

Amazed, I can frequently remain there as if transported beyond time, and it’s as if the grandest choir ever assembled reaches the pinnacle of the Hallelujah chorus. That is what took place as we all sat in the Pastor’s living room on Sunday morning. We were discussing the way people wear veils to conceal themselves, like Moses did after he’d come down from the mountain. At first, his face had been radiant because he’d been with God, but as that radiance began to wear off, he had not wanted anyone to see that, and so he began to wear a veil to cover up his true condition.

Don, our leader that morning, asked us to consider what the New Testament had to say about that Old Testament situation, updated by the hindsight of being “in” Christ. So, I went reading along in 2nd Corinthians, chapters three and four, happy as a clam to be skimming over things that morning, content to let other people talk about themselves and what they think. Me? I was skipping down the trail on a bright Sunday morning and just watching the scenery go by.

Trip! Then I was flat on my face in the dust. Standing up and brushing myself off, I looked back to see what had caught my foot.

“But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty—but we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.”

There I sat as if looking at the ceiling, because when I marvel, I tilt my head up. Someone looking at me might have wondered, “What’s wrong with him?”

At times like that God helps me understand things I had not been ready to see in quite those ways before. When previously reading that passage I had always thought about the curtain that was torn when Christ died, allowing me direct access to the Holy of Holies, but as I dusted myself off and marvelled over what had tripped me up, I began to see that authenticity and Christian freedom are linked.

It is precisely those things we would like to conceal, because we are ashamed of them, that God can use as the life of one person affects the life of another. “Liberty” in that context, means freedom to be transparent. There is something to be lost by concealing those aspects of a life that fall short of the glory of God, and everything to gain in being able to speak openly about them.

Sitting there rather dumbfounded on Sunday morning, I decided to try it out. Instead of talking about taking down our veils, I decided to take one of mine down. So, I spoke up and said: “When my second wife left, she left suddenly and broke off all communication so that she became for me a question mark. She left things hanging and unfinished between us relationally. After years I wished that I could put her memory more to rest, but those missing pieces would not allow it. So, I asked God one day to help me be able to be more finished with her.

“Then, someone sent me the url for a MySpace page, and it turned out to be that of my ex-wife.

“There was her picture and information about her. As I read it, and as I looked at her picture, I realised it did not bring up the usual tender feelings from the past.

“Indeed, this woman on the internet seemed very different from my memory of her, and I found myself putting some missing pieces together in the puzzle of our lives. This was important, because I feel bad about being married three times.

“In the church, you’re only supposed to be married once. And I’ve been rejected by Christian people because I’ve been divorced. I wish that I could have been married only once, but I guess it took me this long to get it right.”

The atmosphere in the room changed while I was talking. The Pastor’s wife was crying, and another woman got up to sit next to her and comfort her. People realised I had taken down a veil, made myself vulnerable, and revealed how God works in vessels made of clay.

For me, liberty is not just freedom not to sin; it is the freedom to talk about sin, learn from it, and to be authentic about it, watching God use it to advantage in daily life.