The Great Pretender

Reading in Yac's Messy Spirituality again and came upon this quote, which I couldn't resist sharing:

There is no room for pretending in the spiritual life. Unfortunately, in many religious circles, there exists an unwritten rule. Pretend. Act like God is in control when you don't believe He is. Give the impression everything is okay in your life when it's not. Pretend you believe when you doubt; hide your imperfections; maintain the image of a perfect marriage with healthy and well-adjusted children when your amily is like any other normal dysfunctional family. And whatever you do, don't admit that you sin.

You know what....that is an awesome paragraph. Why? Because it's true. The sad thing is that weknow it, agree with it, yet for some crazy reason, we don't do anything about it. NOTHING at all.

We go throughout our days with a, "Everything is fine" face on and with our Ned Flanders attitude. We will say that everything is fine even if somebody just died.

Person 1: "So how are you doing in all this?"
Person 2 "Well, it's hard, but I am doing ok."

Why don't we just come out and be honest. Life stinks! Majorly. We just lost our mother or father or whatever. Why don't we say that we don't believe God loves us or that God is not there in it all? Why don't we become gut level honest and share what is really in our hearts and minds?

Because we are pretenders. We pretend at all costs. We are never transparent. Although we believe we are sinners, we don't think we do. Oh, we'll say that we do...or we will say, "Sure I sin" but in reality, we live as though we don't sin. We live as though we don't have struggles. I am sick and tired of people saying they sin yet do not acknowledge it in anyway. I don't believe making a general comment like, "Well, we are all sinners, including me" and then living like there is no struggles or temptations is what God wants us to do.

I am calling for us to be more honest. Not with just others but first and foremost with ourselves. We are fallen, sinners who are completely marred by sin, apart from the love and salvation of Christ. We are imperfect, lying, cheating, backbiting, people who need the grace of God more now than ever.

But do we believe that? For the most part we live life as a "perfectionist." We live like the day we were saved is the day all our sin was removed from our life (note I am not talking in regards to justification and the work of Christ.) We believe that we are not to sin anymore and that for the most part we are "good christian guys/gals." We believe that at the moment of conversion, our sins were taken from our life. We no longer should struggle with anything. And if you do....you are not trusting God.

That's bull. Seriously. We all struggle with things. We just don't want to admit it Yet, we would rather point to others sin and make it the sin that we "focus" on. For example, think of homosexuals. We put so much attention and energy into this one sin. We are afraid what these people would do to our church, family or culture. Yet, if we are to be honest, its backbiting Christians that have done the most harm to the church, family, and culture. Or gossiping. Or money loving. Or.....fill in the blank.

Do you see my point? People are sinners....especially "them."

"Now me, shoot I am doing the best I can. Sure I sin, but you know for the most part I am a good Christian guy. I don't struggle with too many sins....at least not the big ones you know. "

Whatever. Stop pretending. Stop thinking that everything is ok when you just need to be honest with yourself, God, and others about who you really are.

I know I need to. I am pitiful. I harbor anger, hold grudges, think of revenge, and am rageful. That is all this morning. Not counting the rampant thoughts that I have about things. I am bad. I am sorry....as in not good.

But.....I am trying. And I will try even harder....today, tomorrow, and hopefully the next day.

any comments?