Last year as I transferred to a new university, I found myself in one of the lowest, most destructive places in my life. With temptations around every corner, I began to drown in the red solo cup, beer bong, blackout party lifestyle I thought would help validate my worth. A lifestyle I thought would fill me, left me crying myself to sleep most nights, empty and alone. As I began to step inside the four walls of the church again, I began to realize why I had left them in the first place.

“I saw those pictures of you on Facebook, looks like someone had a good time last night.”
“I personally would NEVER go out drinking, but to each his own I guess.”
“I don’t see how you can call yourself a Christian and yet go out and party every weekend.”

It only took a couple weeks before I realized the unspoken conditions that have been put in place within the church. The Facebook pictures must come down, the honesty about my sins must be hushed, but a fake small with some small talk will always be welcome. Before I knew it, I found myself sucked into the idea that Christianity is for the whole, not the shattered.

We have turned Christianity into this idea that we must all appear to be perfect, when in reality, Christianity is built upon the acknowledgment that we are all so damaged that the only logical solution is to fall into the arms of Christ and admit we are broken. The instagramed pictures of Bibles in coffee shops and nice clothes on Sunday has created the façade that we all have our lives together. We have become so great at perfecting our image that we have forgotten that being Christ followers is about being broken, together. We accept this false image of what Christians should look like and because of that, we begin to judge broken people while claiming to follow a God who zealously loves them. Jesus sat with adulterers, lepers, and tax collectors, yet we can’t sit next to a fellow believer without whispering about what she was doing the night before.

It’s time to remember what the church was created for: broken people in desperate need of a Savior, not perfect people who have it all together. It’s time to take off the masks and admit we are all at war with a devil who is on the prowl to destroy us. Stop pointing fingers at the broken and start learning something from them. Have the courage to show up damaged. Be brave enough to end the small talk and answer “how are you?” with honesty. Be a church filled with broken people tirelessly trying to repair one another through prayer and encouragement. Only then will the church begin to look like Jesus again.

"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching."
Hebrews 10:24-25