God Doesn't Care About Your Facebook Status

I walk into a hospital room to visit someone who just went through major surgery and say, “Hi!  How are you?”  Reflexively, he responds, “Fine, thanks,” regardless of much pain he is in or how worried he is about his prognosis. 

I hug someone at the funeral home as she stands grief-stricken beside the casket and ask, “How are you doing?”  Choking back her tears, she replies, “Good, and you?”

I see a social media post from a family that I know is going through a crisis.  It’s a picture of smiling, happy faces with the caption “Life doesn’t get any better than this!”

Almost instinctively, we try to put on a good appearance.  We want the world to think that our lives are happy and beautiful, no matter what struggles we may be enduring.  Maybe we’re afraid that others will reject us or think less of us if they know about our troubles.  We might think it’s a sign of weakness to admit to any problems.  Perhaps by disguising our difficulties we don’t have to admit to ourselves that we have them.  Then we can blissfully ignore them, hoping somehow we can muddle through life anyway.

God wants so much more for us than a happy façade over a troubled life, or a cheerful smile that masks a breaking heart.  Consider, for example, how the Bible presents its main characters.  Moses is a murderer.  David is a philanderer.  Elijah is a coward.  Jeremiah is a chronic complainer.  Peter is an unreliable loud-mouth.  Paul is a self-righteous jerk.  These aren’t heroes to idolize.  These aren’t sanitized saints to admire.  These are real people, with all their faults, sins, doubts, and emotions on full display.  The Bible does not give us a pantheon of role models; it shows God working with real people.

God sees us for who we really are, and not for the cleaned-up version we want to show to world.  We cannot bring our brokenness to him for healing and comfort if we try to hide it from him.  We cannot experience the fullness of his powerful love when we believe he will only love the positive parts of who we are.  Our good news is that God accepts, welcomes, and enjoys our whole being without reservation.

Consider how God presented himself to us through Jesus Christ.  He shared our lives at their most vulnerable points.  He was born in a strange place far from home and had enemies from the very start.  He grew up in an impoverished region with an unremarkable family.  He had no formal education or wealth.  He was tortured to death while being humiliated to all passers-by, while his closest friends deserted him.

If God wanted to win our devotion by impressing us, he went about it all wrong.  But if he had, we would think that we had to measure up to his standards. He would accept us only if we were as good as him.  But God is not seeking people who are perfect.  He seeks us in our sin, our weakness, our bad days.  Because it then that he can demonstrate the fullness of his love and grace.