"A Little Broken" Explained

I recently wrote a poem titled, “A Little Broken.” I felt like it needed a little more explanation, so here’s the explanation.

This issue with the church has been on my heart a lot lately. I hate that Christians feel like we need to put on a show for the other believers around us. I’m not just talking about putting on a mask and pretending to be perfect, though this is along those lines. But we play the role of being so perfect so well that we will even try to deny that we want to sin. How shameful it is to admit that we are human and have desires to do things that displease God! We trick ourselves into believing that we can’t admit to our flaws, and we especially can’t admit that we sometimes actually WANT to sin. We’re supposed to be perfect right? We’re supposed to put on a show and pretend that we never want to displease God and we only want to live for him.

That lie is destroying the church. The more we deny the fact that we are broken, the more broken we are becoming. Because we are too proud to admit our desire to sin, and try to hide it so we are not judged by others in the body of Christ, we are more prone to fall into sin. What if we got over ourselves? What if we stopped judging each other? What if we admitted the sins we commit and even the sins we want to commit? What if we put it all on the table and started holding each other accountable and helping each other instead? Then the church would actually be doing what it was supposed to be doing all along!

God never wanted the church to be a building for people to come into and pretend to be perfect. He wanted it to be a place where sinners (you know those prostitutes and tax collectors that Jesus hung out with?) can come and admit their brokenness. Not so we can be proud of our brokenness but so we can admit it to each other and find help! So that we can admit that we are broken so that then we can begin a healing process. But how can we begin to heal if we are too ashamed to admit we are broken in the first place.

 
I am a follower of Jesus Christ. I go to church regularly. I am tired of this masquerade the church is putting on. I am a sinner. I still struggle with desires to sin. But I am tired of denying that. It’s time the church learns to be able to admit that. Then maybe other broken people won’t feel like they have to fix their lives before they come to Jesus. I am convinced that the church will continue to be handicapped in our fulfillment of the great commission until we learn to be open about our brokenness with each other.