UNPRETENDING!
Greetings church family!
I try my hardest not to book flights that have layovers. Nowadays there are so many delayed flights, that a delayed initial flight can complicate the transition during layovers.
One time I was traveling from Phoenix to Detroit, but I had a layover in Atlanta. Sure enough, my Phoenix flight was delayed 45 minutes. Eventually, the Phoenix flight took off, and landed in Atlanta. By the time I deboarded the plane and found the first announcement board, I realized I had to head to a totally different terminal to reach my connecting flight, and I had 20 minutes to do so. I quickly sprinted towards the terminal I needed when I realized that to get to the other terminal, I would need to get on the airport tram. Unfortunately, there was already a huge crowd in front of me. When the airport tram arrived and its doors opened, I internally screamed for everyone in front of me to hurry and get into the tram. To my dismay, by the time I got up to the tram doors, it was completely full. There was no room for me and my luggage. I had to wait for the next tram, and I would eventually miss my connecting flight.
Have you ever had the chance to pretend? Maybe you had the opportunity to attend a costume party where you could dress up and pretend to be a famous historical or fictional character? Maybe you’ve participated in a game night where you played charades, and you pretended to be something in order to get your teammates to guess a specific phrase.
Sometimes we pretend in real life because it’s easier than accepting or expressing our reality. How many times has someone asked how you are doing, and your response was, “Fine.” Deep down, you knew that was a pretend response, but it was easier to say “Fine” than to say, “Not very well, my knees are killing me,” or “I could be a lot better. My spouse isn’t talking to me right now.”
Like me and the airport tram in the earlier story, there is one place where there is no room for pretending - in our spiritual life. You see, none of us have it all together. All of us are a mess in one way or another. We all have secrets. We all have issues. We all have serious struggles. Romans 3:10 says it this way, “As it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one.” But as believers, God has called us to a life with Him, a life of honesty and authenticity. This life includes a refusal to pretend, to allow others to believe we are something we are not. This life is about recognizing our messiness, admitting our messiness, trusting God with our messiness, and being transparent (to a degree) about our messiness with others.
When we choose, instead, to pretend, we short-circuit the gospel. Pretense is now our Savior instead of Jesus. Also, when we choose to pretend, we keep ourselves from experiencing true healing. The true self is held prisoner by the pretend self, and we never find ourselves freed from our emotional wounds. Furthermore, when we pretend, we shield ourselves from the beauty of intimacy. We rarely connect with God nor with others in ways that have any real meaning.
The good news is that with Jesus, there’s no use pretending. Remember, Jesus encountered the exposed woman caught in adultery. In her mess, with nowhere to hide, Jesus accepted her and empowered her with the words, “I do not condemn you. Go and sin no more.” (John 8:11) Remember, Jesus walked up to a thieving tax collector sitting atop a sycamore tree. In his mess, Zacchaeus heard Jesus say the following words of beauty: “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down because today it is necessary for me to stay at your house.” (Luke 19:5) We have example after example in Scripture of Jesus embracing messy lives and transforming them to faithful ones. He can and will do the same for each one of us. We just have to remember - we can’t heal until we first get real.
When you choose to be real, you will find unequivocally that God is for you, God is with you, and God loves you!
Blessings church family!
Pastor Chris
