Ready for a sackcloth and wild honey..

I go to a church every Thursday morning where a large group of women come to worship and study the Bible. I love it. I do...

But all of the women dress so beautifully. Many of them have lots of money.

There are all of these extra special events that cost money.

And I find myself worrying about my clothes.

Instead of worshipping God, I start feeling inferior in a sea of designer jeans and expensive perfume...and then I get kind of mad...

I wonder if this is really what the Christian life is all about.

Is it really about fancy clothes and money?

It's more than just the clothes.

It's the fact that we feel the need to pretty ourselves up and only show the versions of ourselves that have it all together.

And this version is fake.

I want to smack that version in the face (in Christian love, of course) and tell it to quit wearing a mask.

I don't know about you, but I am a mess.

A hot mess.

I am broken and self-centered.

I have a difficult time holding it together most days.

I can fake it pretty well...

But maybe I am tired of faking it.

Maybe I am tired of popularity contests.

I am tired of labels and "So, what do you do for a living?"

Do our jobs define us?

Do our clothes define us?

I am tempted to go all John the Baptist up in here...

Instead, I will not allow anything other than my love for the Creator define me.

And this is what I so desperately want to see in the Church.

I love the Church. I do not want to bash it...

But right about now a large number of us are representing the bride of Christ as if she were a cracked out version of Barbie.

Her Groom deserves better than that.