Worship Leader Devotional “Going Deeper”: Inside Out, Part 3: The Facade
Over the past couple of weeks, we have been looking at what it means to live “Inside Out.” You can catch up on Part 1 and Part 2 here.
I had the opportunity some years ago to tour a location where a television show had been filmed. There was one particular building that was prominent in the show, and from all outside appearances, it looked like a real house. On closer inspection, however, the ‘house’ was nothing more than a facade. It looked like a house on the outside but behind it was nothing of the sort.
We all have the tendency to build facades. We want people to think we have it all together. We tend to live from a projected image of ourselves rather than from our true selves. What happens when that facade is stripped away and we are exposed for the dirty, rotten sinners that we are? Don’t shake your head and say, “Oh no, not me!” If we are honest, we all have places in our lives that are broken and hidden, places that we hope no one will ever know about.
But what if those areas were to be exposed? What if we got real with our issues? What if we came clean with our junk and allowed God full access to bring His healing and restoration to the broken places in our lives?
I’m not saying that we should go out and publicly expose all of our deepest, darkest secrets, but we should all at the very least have a few trusted people in our inner circle who we know love us and support us – and who will also shoot straight with us. Sin is darkness and it cannot live and grow in the light. We need to flip the light on by getting real, being accountable and allowing God’s healing to come.
No one is perfect. Everyone knows that. Why do we think we have to hide behind the image that we are? How much more attractive and alluring is honesty and true freedom? The church gets such a bad rap because the world knows we aren’t perfect, but they see us pretending to be. What if we stopped pretending and instead, gave the message that, yes, we are all dirty, rotten sinners – but let me tell you about what Jesus did to fix that…let me tell you about grace! How much more powerful that kind of testimony is over one laced with projected perfection or pious pretending!
Living from the inside out means living authentically. It means being full of integrity. It means that who we are on the inside lines up with how we live on the outside. It means living in true freedom – without a facade.
Recommended reading: “A Scandalous Freedom: The Radical Nature of the Gospel” by Steve Brown, Howard Books, 2004.
