I remember when my wife and I decided to get some occasional help with house cleaning. We cleaned the whole day before the housecleaner showed up. I was thinking to myself why am I doing this?
About a month ago I had to go to the dentist, so I brushed and rinsed and flossed and I went hoping that I will get a good report. I had a strange desire to receive the dentist’s approval.
But last Friday I took my car to the shop. It had a strange squeak. I didn't pop the hood or wash the car, and the interior was painted with little kid's sticky finger food hands.
When I go to the car shop, I go messy. I go honest. I hope that they hear the squeak. I go with the hope that the mechanic can fix the problem. I know I sure can’t.
So this brings me to the question; How do we go to church? Do you try to clean yourself quickly before you arrive? Or maybe we go as we go to the dentist’s office, brush, rinse, floss...repeat? Or maybe you go the same way you would take your car to the shop? Messy with fixing needed?
Too many of us go to church and fake it. We try to avoid conversation, but if we have to have a conversation, we make sure it is as surface-level as possible. We are afraid the mess that is just below the surface is going to start leaking out.
Let’s rather go like we go to the car shop. Don’t let your “Sunday best” cover up the truth of where your heart truly is.
Your church family is there to celebrate with you in our happiest moments and also to grieve with you in your lowest moments. We have this family so that they might speak wisdom and hope and grace into our lives. God has given us a family so that we might receive comfort and exhortation.
We are told to accept one another (Romans 15:7), to “carry each other’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2). We are told to confess our sins to each other and pray for one another (James 5:16).
We can’t do any of these things truly if we treat church like the dentist’s office, but rather step into the church auto-shop with humble transparency and look forward to the gift of true, messy community.
