Every Monday, I receive an email that’s sent out to encourage pastors. This week’s email was titled, “Pastor, You Don’t Need to Have It All Together.” It was a simple reminder that, as pastors, we can’t forget that a title doesn’t make us better than the people in our church. And it’s ok to admit that we’re human and we don’t have it all together.
As I read through the email, I realized this is a great reminder for all Christians. Because the truth is, nobody has it all together. It’s easy to buy into the lie that Christians have to uphold a certain image, but we must not fall victim to that lie. The Bible reminds us again and again that nobody’s perfect—except for Jesus, of course. The rest of us are broken because of sin.
The thing is, we don’t want others to know we’re broken, so we walk around trying to impress people and pretend like we’ve got it all together. The problem with that is that we need to be honest, first with ourselves and consequently with others, if we want to see real change in our lives. We have to actually admit that we don’t have it all together. We have to admit our weaknesses and give God the freedom to come and bring true change to our lives. And we have to be transparent enough with others to let them see and know that we are still in process.
In Romans 12:3 it says: “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.”
This verse is really about humility. It’s about taking an honest look at our lives and being willing to address our issues. Are we willing to ask the people closest to us where we’re falling short or how we could do better? Do we have the courage to ask others to really be honest with us?
Rick Warren says, “You can only manage what you measure. If you don’t know the measure of your faith, you can’t grow in your faith. If you don’t know the measure of your health, you can’t develop better health. If you don’t know the measure of where you are financially, you can’t set goals financially. If you don’t know the measure of where you are spiritually or vocationally or relationally, then you can’t grow in those areas. You can only manage what you measure.”
Are we willing to take a good, hard look at our lives and assess how we measure up or where we may be falling short? We don’t need to have it all together, but we do need to be willing to look at the areas where we are falling short and seek to grow and do better.
Lord, help us to realize we don’t need to be something we’re not. Help us to acknowledge our weaknesses so that we can grow and become the people You are calling us to be. Help us to trust one another enough to be real with trusted friends, instead of pretending to be perfect and holding everyone at arm’s length from our true selves. And please help us by giving us the strength to do all of this because we cannot do it without Your Spirit at work within us.
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