"anything" - Clarity

Chapter 2 of "anything" is sub-titled: abandoning pretending".  What a concept.  As believers, we can come to a point of fatigue - fatigue that comes from striving for goodness.  We can think we are right, we are good enough, we are on-track.  We can hide our weaknesses and our struggles, thinking we should present a pretty package to the world.  It is exhausting!

Jennie talks about Adam and Eve's decision to choose evil, and their shame afterward.  They were without a church or Bibles to pressure them, yet their inclination was to hide and pretend.  Don't we also find comfort in hiding and pretending?  It seems safer to present ourselves as together and secure rather than humbly show the world our flaws.  As Jennie says:  "Humility is costly".

We like "good" people.  We like good children and good adults, and we find them acceptable.  But, Jesus went to people who were broken.  Broken people needed Him, and still do.

There is something really beautiful about a woman who is open and humble about her brokenness. We can let down our guard around someone like that, and just be who we really are.  What would it take for you to just relax and push away the pretense?  We can be women who are tender, and approachable, and openly broken.  When God is our refuge and our constant, it is safe to just be ourselves.  

Let's not wait for someone else to do it first.   Jennie wrote about a group of men who had been in prison. These men were open and vulnerable, and grateful.  She said it was as if "they had 'screwed up' written on their foreheads."  In small group, we talked about how people would react if we walked into church like that!  It might be scary, but it would also be liberating. Perhaps we won't write on our faces that we have "screwed up" and aren't perfect, but maybe we live in such a way that we are always ready to share our weaknesses.

 I think we can do that.