It occurs to me that we as believers can struggle with being real or honest.  Just to be open about where you are in life can be hazardous to your health.  This was a rough week around here.  It started with the death of a beautiful young woman with an entire life awaiting.  Explanations will be hard to find.  It is yet another of a long string of tragedies to affect my community.  Then we added disease when the stomach bug woke me up on Thursday morning.  Let me say that it was not as painful as others who were afflicted with this ailment.  I am grateful for that.  But here we are on Sunday night still waiting for my body to recover.  We piled on top of all of this defeat as the Texas Rangers fell short in their bid to be champions.  Pages will be written about how victory in game six was within the grasp only to be snatched away.  All of this adds up to make this week a bummer as people say.

I could probably add more to the list of issues but my point is simply that sometimes our world does not turn our way.  What we fail to see is how every obstacle that comes our way builds on others around us.  It will not take long until we are feeling the damage from the sum total of stress.  We become over extended in our activity without building the energy required to handle all of this.  Our temptation is to burn down, burn out or burn up.  Let me return to the original idea about being real.  When most people ask us about how we are doing our usual answer is to just say that we are fine.  Odds are good they may not really want to know about our troubles anymore than we want to rehearse them.  We learn to stuff them under another layer of pretending all is well while dying a little more on the inside.  Surely this is no way for a healthy person to live.

Insanity includes the denial of reality.  Those who cannot live with the current condition tend to find ways out on the mental or emotional level.  It is only my humble opinion that even believers fall prey to that trap when there is no outlet for pain.  Maybe we need reminding of why the Psalms speak to us in ways beyond words.  Even the great man David finds an outlet in times of uncertainty or loss.  His words echo our questions on reality at differing points of life.  Expressing our sorrows is one way God gives us to understand them.  We get to see or hear what it is we are feeling rather than burying it under the guise of being correct.  Letting it out can mean the risk of anger or tears but allow me to let you in on a secret.  The anger or tears will be there whether you go public or not. 

We are often told that we should be happy and smile no matter what.  My problem with this is you never can let God work a miracle in your heart when you pretend it is not broken.  There will be times when you feel like singing, "Victory in Jesus.'  There are other times you sing, "It is Well with My Soul."  Maybe we are scared if we ever hear someone answer with a word other than fine.  Maybe we are anxious about letting our guard down to tell another person of our messes.  I always wonder what in the world would happen in the usual congregation if there was an outbreak of being real?  No doubt in my mind but that it would be scary at first.  Imagine finally being free to be yourself with others and with God.  New paths would be traveled should that occur.  We would discover a whole new way of living.  Maturity would not need to be faked but would become authentic.  Maybe we need another night of reflecting on this topic.   Let's sleep on this while hoping for some answers tomorrow.

Bro. Trey