honest about our brokenness

Do you think you could walk into your church, get up on stage, and tell everyone about your brokenness? Is this acceptable in our churches? Outside of baptism and testimony times, do we allow ourselves to be this honest with one another? Have we made it taboo to admit our brokenness in the church? Have we become masters at image management in the church?

If I'm honest, I would have to say these are questions I don't really like the answer to. We have a church culture where we do tend to try to hide our brokenness. We think we have to look a certain way and, therefore, manage our image to look exactly that way. And, while some struggles may be okay to admit, there seems to be a line that we don't cross in what we share. To be honest, when I look at these answers, based on my own experience, it saddens me and worries me.

I think there is incredible power that comes when we're honest with one another about our brokenness. And the fact that we are broken is not unique to us - all of us are broken. The ways in which we are broken may be different from others, but the fact remains that we are all broken.

I, quite honestly, think that there is a danger that comes with our trying to look like we have it all together when we come to church. Our brokenness goes unmentioned and God is not allowed in to bring His healing, and in the end our brokenness may cause us a "spectacular" problem that we can't hide even though we would like to.

I wonder if sometimes our unwillingness to admit our brokenness makes our brokenness seem like a bigger deal than it actually is. If it wasn't such a taboo thing to admit, I think we would begin to realize that we're not alone in it and the power that Satan uses to defeat us with it would be broken.

The church should be a place that welcomes broken people with open arms. That allows people to be broken in their midst. And that points broken people to the truth and healing found only in Jesus Christ and our surrender to Him.