You Don't Have to Pretend

A few years back, I invited our congregation to read through the Bible with me in one year. We had many people enthusiastically respond. Shortly after my initial invite, I emailed them the plan we would use, and we started into it. I did well keeping up with the reading during the first three months. However, as we moved into the next three months, I began to fall behind. I worked to catch up but could not quite get there. By the time we were six months in, I was so far behind I scrapped the plan entirely. 

During months six through nine, I would have congregation members approach me and ask how my reading was going. My standard response was, "It's going ok. I'm a little behind." It was true that I was behind, but I couldn't bring myself to tell them that I had thrown in the towel altogether. After all, I'm the one who challenged them to do it in the first place. On top of that, I'm their pastor. What kind of pastor ditches a Bible reading plan?!

Many of us are tempted to make ourselves appear more spiritual than we are. I felt like a failure for scrapping the plan and couldn't bear the thought of the church knowing about it. In Jesus' day, the Pharisees succumbed to the same temptation, and Jesus called them out on it. 

We read in Matthew 23, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and every kind of impurity (v27)."

Augustine once said, "The problem with the hypocrite is his motivation. He does not want to be holy; he only wants to seem to be holy. The approval of men matters more to him than the approval of God."

God's not looking for people who have it all together, but people who understand their need for Him. When we come to terms with our need for Jesus and see that others have the same need, it gives us the freedom to stop pretending, be honest, and trust that His grace is enough.