One of the saddest and very unfortunately, most common
things that I have heard through counseling is how people have been hurt by the
church. I've heard story after story of people who felt like they were never
good enough, who never measured up to the standard of the Christian they were
supposed to be. Sometimes even sadder are the “successful” Christians, the ones
who have some kind of leadership position and are looked up to and respected as
a godly role model. They are often the most insecure, constantly working to
keep up their image of what they “should be”. It’s as if church is the place
where you have to keep up appearances – having the perfect career and family,
while serving at church, all while keeping up a cheery smile and thankfulness
for everything. Church becomes this exhausting list of “should’s “and “should
not’s”.
Let’s face it. None of us can measure up to standards like
that. And the consequences of this kind of thinking are awful. People are
isolated, feeling like they are the only ones with problems, while life for
everyone else is so much easier. People hide their hurts, hide their sins, and
slowly drown in shame and insecurities. Instead of sharing with one another,
people compare, feeling bitter when a person changes or gains something that
they want. In our church, we are so blessed to be in a place that reminds us
every single week, and even throughout the week, that we are all people who are
worse than we think and are only saved because our God decided to take all of
our sin and suffering on Himself. Even then, we still go back to that kind of
thinking. We still think that our problems, our past, our thoughts are worse
than everyone else. Or we feel this need to keep it all together and take care
of our own problems independently. We make assumption that other people have it
all, while we just keep screwing up. We can’t seem to understand why things are
so hard for us, while we assume that things come so easily to others.
This thinking is against everything the gospel says! In
fact, this is the very reason Jesus came! We can’t measure up, and we need
someone outside of ourselves to redeem us. In fact, there is no one else but
God Himself who could save someone like you or me. Since we have been shown
such undeserved x 1,000,000,000,000,000 mercy, through God sacrificing His only
Son for our curse, we must change this standard. We have to make a new normal.
Instead of normal being the people who are “doing well”, the normal should be
people who are struggling in some way or another. We are all imperfect people
being re-created into a new creation, so we shouldn’t expect it to be painless.
We don’t have to know how to be perfect friends or care about people the right
way. We don’t have to have the perfect career that gives us purpose and
satisfaction, while bringing home bank. And even more than that, there will be
hard times. There will be “plagues” or circumstances that may seem devastating
at first, but God’s Word is perfectly true. And He has promised,
“I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.” Exodus 7:6-8
Although we may not be in slavery to Pharaoh, we act like we
are slaves to the standards, expectations, and idols that we have set up in our
lives. God is working to strip away all those things that hold us in slavery in
our lives. So all the more, let us make a new normal where we can share these things
with one another, and it’s not the end of the world. In our church, let’s lay
down our pride and work to build a culture where we do not face these struggles
alone.
