Honesty

So--I've been thinking a lot about honesty lately. Or maybe what I mean is openness, because I can't really think of anyone that I know who is particularly dishonest, but it seems like real openness is rare in a church setting, even though it seems like church should be where we feel comfortable enough to be completely open. This blog by Don Miller might be what got me thinking about this in the first place.

I wish that I felt like it was okay to be more open with people at church. I feel like church should be the place where we can lay out all our problems, be real, be involved in each others' lives, and help each other out. I think lots of people want this. But in my experience it just doesn't work out like this very often. Why is that?? Or is it just me??

I go to a small group that meets every week. We do prayer requests almost every time, but it just occurred to me that we ask for prayer for friends or family or acquaintances but very rarely for ourselves. Is this common? I mean--sometimes it seems like I know more about my group's family & friends than I know about them. Which is sad, I think.

I think that I want to make an effort to share things that are going on in my life at my small group, but I'm not sure how appropriate that is. I guess it's completely possible that everyone in my group has their life together and is completely in tune with God and never has any junk that they are struggling through. I don't think that's true, though. Sometimes I feel like the church atmosphere kind of breeds fake-ness. Or maybe that's just something that I'm imposing on myself. Since everyone else seems to have it together, I feel like I need to pretend that I do, too.

--val

Fresh Start

I think I'm going to start blogging again. =)