This past Sunday, the adult education class began a chapter on submission from Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. During the class, we explored seven large sections of Scripture that highlight submission and the reasons why it is important in the life and heart of a Christian. As I was preparing for class, I speculated in my mind that most of the Scripture verses we would be reading through on Sunday morning would be familiar to most of the people who attend the class and I expected that I would not need to spend lots of time discussing the meaning of the passage.

As I have been continuing to ponder in my mind the topic of submission, I am left to wonder if we have a much harder time living in submission than talking about living in submission. We talk about submission frequently and well in the Christian Church, but there are many examples of Christians struggling to live as humble servants. I was listening to a podcast of a sermon from another church and I felt convicted about this disconnect between what we believe and what we practice. I wasn’t convicted about not living as humble servant (although that is true at times), but because I didn’t want to leave the people who come to the class on submission with the idea that I never struggle with being humble. Friends, I have times when I am colossally bad at being humble and submitting to others.

If there is a disconnect between our speech and our actions, it is not because the Christian life is a hard path (even though it is), but it is because we don’t want people to see the difference between our beliefs and our actions. So we hide and we cover and we talk about the standard without ever rising to meet it. The most heart-breaking thing about this is not the cover identity we give ourselves, but the feeling inside we are left with: no one can ever know who we really are.
We don’t have to talk a good game. We don’t have to give ourselves a cover story. We are not perfect and there should be a place to talk about that and show our imperfections, so we can be known and understood and healed.

Perhaps that place can be Fridley Covenant Church…no perfect people allowed!

Author’s note: This post is also available at Fridley Covenant Church.