Stop Being Pretty

Be pretty. Look right. Act right. Do not let anyone see you break. These are the ideas that surround our culture. I get it. Nobody wants to be that friend that is angry or that is sobbing all the time, but the problem is that this idea of "being pretty" has seeped its way into our spiritual lives. When we talk to God, we feel this need to have pretty words and not show emotion unless its "bringing fire". Why is that? Why do we feel the need to hide how we feel from the Creator of feelings?

I'm reading this book for one of my classes right now that is called Fill These Hearts by Christopher West. I highly recommend it. It's completely changing my view on how God views our desire. Christopher West is a very wise Catholic theologian. In his book, he starts talking about a time that he got angry with God. He was as a retreat and he was writing down in his journal to God. He started out really pretty with the "correct words", but then he decided to get real. He started writing about how angry he was with God. West used a choice word or two and obviously felt that he had committed the ultimate sin by getting so angry with God. He went to confess about what he had done and the priest calmly responds "good prayer". I am not in any way suggesting that we should cuss out God in our prayers, but God spoke to me while I was reading this page of the book.

"Stop trying to be so pretty with Me." I pray to God all the time. I mean it's how we create relationship with Him, but is it a real relationship if we beat around the bush and say what we think God wants to hear? Even when we cry to God, we try to use pretty words, like he isn't going to hear us unless we sound sophisticated. Imagine if you and your best friend just tried to be politically correct with each other. There'd be no late night in depth conversations. There'd be no nights of binge eating feelings and crying about life. There would be no real relationship and that's not how God wants to be with us.

I feel like we fail to realize that God made us and that includes the intense parts of us. There are times that we are angry and want to yell at Him, not in a disrespectful way, but a way to lament about our confusion and I think that is okay. The Bible doesn't say, come all who are heavy burdened with your sophisticated words. It just says come as you are. God created our emotions and though He knows literally everything, I think He wants to see how we truly feel. Job yelled at God. David wept to God. Even Jesus felt pain when he cried out to God asking why He had forsaken Him. So, why do we feel like we have to be different?