Dark red carpet. A stained glass
window brings in the light. He speaks: the word of the Lord tumbles from the
lips of an amalgam of flesh and spirit. We stare up at him in our church
clothes: anxious or tired or sad. We wrongly believe that he is not the same as
us: twisted and torn. But he is. This preacher man is a weary sinner like you
and me.
Recently, during Sunday School, I heard a gal admit something terrible that she did. She confessed the type of thing that is even hard for me to admit to myself in the confines of my bathtub (This is where I do all my best thinking.). She spoke of her sin so boldly on that Sunday school morning. Not because she was proud of it, but because she wanted her Christian brothers and sisters to know that she struggled with this. I am not candid like this at church. I come in there with several packed on winter coats that reek of sin. I might give you the first layer or so of honesty, but it is hard for me to put THAT terrible thing out there.
After this woman’s confession, I got thinking about being vulnerable at church. It is important to be vulnerable with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Hebrews 3:13 urges Christians to encourage one another, so each of us can avoid the sin of which we can so easily become entangled. Encouragement only comes when we are being honest about where we are in our life.
Even more importantly, the Lord desires that we be vulnerable when we come to him. He doesn’t want us to come to him sloshing around in pools of makeup and other entanglements. He wants us to come to him like a child. Children are good at being themselves. As a toddler teacher, I have fun watching kids greet their parents when they pick them up. The kids run to them with food plastered to their cartoon t-shirts and with arms outstretched. This is how the Lord wants us to come to him. Because when we are at our most vulnerable, we have the most teachable hearts: God holds us in his big lap and wipes our stained t-shirts before infusing us with the truth we so desperately needed to hear.
