Managing Junk Only Works For So Long...

I have come to realize that the more we attempt to make it look like we have life figured out, the more exhausting life becomes.  

So many times as you and I walk through life we come across difficulties and hard times.  We stumble through trenches of heart-ache and depression and rather than looking for help we wall ourselves off in the hopes of fixing it ourselves.

I think the main reason that this happens to so many of us is because the culture in which we live has fed us the lie that we need to have our junk together. Don't be a both to people around you, don't be a drain, so therefore when someone asks 'How are you doing?' We reply with 'I'm doing just fine.'  When in reality we are the brink of a breakdown.

 The fact is that most of us really don't have our junk together...we just attempt to manage it well. And managing junk only works for so long...eventually you're going to break and and that's going to get really messy and almost all of the time there is going to be collateral damage.  

Being open about who we really are is often times what we need more than anything.  But sadly when we attempt to be open sometimes that is met with other types of walls.  I seen it and I've done it.  I have been the wall builder and the one standing on the other side of the wall.  Both sides are extremely lonely.

What we need more than anything is to be apart of a community, an authentic community...where we are allowed to be open about our lives.  Allowed to show that we can be and have been a little messy...we need grace.  We need space to repent.  We need people who are willing to love us even when we are not lovable.  Why? Because Jesus has shown us an incredible amount of grace, so therefore we need to be willing to do the same thing with one another.

When we keep quiet about our struggles   our health is compromised.  Don't believe me?  Check this out.

For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. Psalm 32:3

We need to be in a place where it's OK NOT to be OK, but also be willing not to stay in that place.  Be willing to move towards redemption. That's what the Gospel is.  REDEMPTION.   We (the church) are a body of believers that has been given a mandate from God to help people see the light of the Gospel of Christ.  So when people come in our doors we need more than ever to help them understand that they don't have to be perfect, but that they need to look to the ONE who is perfect, because when we do that and we rest in him we can be perfect too.

So my challenge for all of us today is stop managing our junk and just simply land in a community that will be willing to come along side you and love you even when you can't be loved.