The Bible is God's blunt wake-up call to humanity, intended to arouse us from the stupor of our spiritual coma. To this end, God doesn't hide from the reality of our lives, but wades right into the middle of it. He did this through the incarnation, putting on human flesh and living the life of a Jewish man in first-century Palestine.

But even before coming as Jesus, God didn't hide from the reality of human existence. The text of the Bible is full of drama, humor, violence, graphic sexuality, and sarcasm. As a whole, it presents an unbelievably blunt description of life. Unfortunately, much of the church is embarrassed by these things so they spiritualize the texts, avoid them, or hide in a Victorian morality that has more to do with shame than with a God who is unashamed to address the naked truths of life in the real world.

Take sex, for example. The fact is that God made it. He invented orgasms and He wants us to enjoy and dialogue about such things under his tutelage and supervision. Jesus walked straight into prostitution, nakedness, and hypocrisy in order to set people free from their seductions and slaveries. God may not be happy about a variety of our actions, but he isn't afraid to address them. And though He loves us right where we are, He loves us too much to let us stay there.

Unfortunately Christianity has become synonymous with morality. This performance-based perspective means that Christian teaching too often promotes a sort of moral perfectionism that says, "Now that you're a Christian, you should act, think, and believe perfectly". This, in turn, breeds a competitive spirit within the church, leading people to hide their true struggles. So instead of confessing flaws and carrying each other's burdens, we lie and hide, living in hypocrisy. The result is that the church becomes a stuffy parlor, paneled with pretty and petty religious veneer, instead of a family room filled with the furniture of real Christianity: openness, ugliness, transformation, setbacks, and glory.

Church is supposed to be the safest place in the world, a place overflowing with the mercy, compassion, grace, love, and patient faithfulness of God. Christians are supposed to be like Christ, who came "not to judge, but to seek and save that which was lost." Nobody gets it perfect. This reality, if we embrace it, makes it hard to judge, condemn, and attack others. It keeps pride at bay by forcing our perpetual brokenness to the surface. Maturity is the goal we're all striving toward, but not because it's some high ground from which to look down on others. Instead, it is a position of service from which we can pause and help other pilgrims along the road, pointing out some of the mud holes we fell in along the way.

We will engage reality. Real words, feelings, flaws, foibles, and the rest. Real movies, literature, art, whatever.

Closer, closer,
You've lived this life, you know what it's like,
Closer, closer,
You know it's a struggle, you know it's a fight 
-The Call