It took me a long time to figure it out, but I’m pretty sure that my elders were frauds.

They always seemed so confident, so self-assured.  They appeared unruffled by the variable circumstances that our family faced, whether the challenges were in the workplace or in the home, with finances or health.

I can’t recall seeing the older generation filled with dread or plagued by the possibility of making the wrong choice.  They appeared to be so much surer of themselves than I did as a young person.  I looked forward to growing up and being sure of myself too.

And, now that I am older than they were when I thought of them as giants hewn of stone, I am pretty sure that they were a bunch of frauds and fakes.

They were every bit as scared and uncertain, as shaken and worried as most of us are when we face the challenges of our lives.  They hid their fears and self-doubts because they wanted to project strength.

They wanted to project strength to those of us who were their vulnerable children.  They didn’t want to inflict adult worries on young hearts.  They wanted to project strength in the community of their friends and colleagues because, like us, they didn’t want to look like losers and failures.  They even projected strength to themselves, because that’s what they believed was expected of them.

I respect their efforts to put an unperturbed face on a worried and insecure psyche, but I’m glad there is less pressure on people today to pretend they have it all together.  There is no shame in admitting that sometimes we need someone else to help us.  Sometimes we are scared and confused.  Like our parents, we might not want to panic our kids with our worries, but we might benefit by sharing our fears with someone we can trust.  We all need someone who will walk through the storm with us.

Maybe that’s what the church is for – to be a community of people who can be honest with each other.  We can be honest about our weakness and worries, because we all admit every time we gather to worship that we mess up in “thought word and deed.”  We are not a community of the perfect, but a community of love that won’t allow sin and failure to defeat love.

Prayer:  Gracious God, you know all that I am and all I have failed to become.  It feels so good to take off my mask in this safe place.  Do you mind if I just stay here a while?