No Perfect People Allowed

I'm reading a book by this title written by John Burke, a pastor in Austin, TX.  I am convicted by my lack of authenticity and transparency with those around me.  I  constantly hold back for fear that people won't like me or worse still, think that I am not as good as they used to think I was.

I fall prey to the lie that I am a good person.  I fall prey to the menace that is Pharisaism.  I fall prey to my own pride, that I don't want to admit I am not as good as I want everyone to think. This book has changed the way I perceive relationships.  It's been a long time coming, but it seems I've found something that puts into words what I've been trying to articulate to myself for a while.  It's also nice to have some confirmation of my own beliefs by someone I have never spoken with once.

I desire to live in a real community with other believers.  In a narrative that often reads like a setting for a support group, Pastor Burke has written about whole-ness that has come through honesty and openness between people.  Perhaps this is what a church is supposed to be, a support group for broken, searching people.  Becoming whole together, while each on our own journey.  Through an atmosphere of love and acceptance, we see people open up to the gospel like they never would have if confronted with the poise and eloquence of a televangelist.

I thank God that I can still learn.  I wish these concepts had been made clear to me 15 years ago. I wish I didn't have to struggle to find the truth.  I pray that I become the man God wants me to be.  I am becoming more and more haunted by the phrase the Apostle Paul writes to the church in Corinth, "I have become all things to all people that by all means I may save some."  I am afraid I am not all things to all people.  I can hear the longing in the heart of Paul that none would perish without knowing the love of God.  More and more this is what I desire for myself.