My week...

My week:
Monday - interviewed about sex education for students
Tuesday - interviewed young lady about cutting and her story of self harm, she still cuts and harms herself.
Wednesday - shared a meal with a student who is wondering if his mom is cheating on his dad
Thursday - Had a 7th grade boy share with me he wishes he was a girl, talked with a couple who have separated and want a divorce

That's my week... how's yours? I hope yours was as awesome as mine! Seriously, this week has been awesome.

Why?

Because I feel like I've had the gift of honest people being honest with me. People who were willing to be open, raw, real. Who didn't hide their crap and want to pretend like they where perfect. But who honestly admitted "I'm messy! & deal with it."

What I love about the Church, when it's working right, is that messy lives:
- don't startle the Church but inspire it
- aren't hidden but celebrated
- aren't excluded but told they belong

I've been thinking a lot this week about the story of Ananias and his wife Sapphira that's recorded in the Bible in Acts 5.

The gist of the story is the Church was just starting and the couple sold some land and wanted to give some of the money to help the church grow. But instead of telling the church they were only giving a portion from the sale, they puffed up and said they were giving all the money from the sale to the church. At this confession both of them die.

I wonder if this bazaar story is in the Bible because as God was just starting the church he wanted to clearly communicate honesty is what matters most in the Church.

Honesty that says you don't have any need to present yourself better, more put together, more refined, more controlled, or more "with it" then you really are.

That the only accepted behavior is honest behavior, the real you.

The stories of my week were honest, real, and not reserved. They came from people admitting they don't have it all together.

The beauty of the Church to me, is I get to say I'm just as messed up as you, just in a different way, but this place, this place of brick and mortar is actually a place of flesh and blood and these people, all these people, are just as messed up as you feel you are, each in a different way, but each in a real way.

I wonder if the church stops being the church when the people in the church stop remembering they are each messed up and in need a someone to say they are loved no matter what by Jesus, and that with his love are able to live lives, lives marked with grace, joy, peace, patience, etc.

So happy Thursday, and enjoy the freedom of knowing you don't have to have your stuff all together.

Happy messed up Thursday.
Matt


 - How have you seen the Church get this right?
 - How have you seen it miss this?