Grungy.

    I have a guilty secret.  OK, fine.  I shout my most embarrassing foibles from the roof and will ask you how you think my new girdle is working.  BUT, for drama's sake, I'll let you pretend that I'm divulging something really secret.  I love 90's alternative music almost more than any other genre.  Yes, I love to praise Jesus.  Yes, I know garbage in garbage out.....   YES  I hear you.  I sat through the fundy music movies that told me Satan would come out of my eyes if I listened to this music.  Maybe that is why I ran head long into it.  Really? Out of my EYES???

     One of my favorites is Green Day.  Yes, they talk about their lives in really unappealing ways.  Yes, they talk about all the sins they use to fix the mess they are.  See, that is not what is so appealing.  What it is for me that I can't look away from songs like "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" is the absolute and complete honesty.  He just put so much of his soul on his sleeve and then shared it with millions so that we could find that we aren't all so alone after all.  Really.  Google it if you've not heard it.

     I wish that Christians were so honest about the secrets of their lives.  It is so easy to get all scrubbed and gussied up for church meetings on weekends, but to actually walk the walk....well.  THAT requires honesty.  It may mean you show up in pajamas a few Sundays in a row cause the depression you are in is so deep you just can't find the will to do laundry.  It may mean that you have to say something embarrassing about yourself to your close friends so they can help you pull out of a particularly sticky sin. 

     But trust me, as I alluded to in the first paragraph, I have been doing that my entire life.  I tell you that I get really sad sometimes.  I tell you that I like to be the center of attention.  I tell you that I am not disciplined enough to practice my piano materials.  I tell you I yell at my children and wish I didn't.  Many reasons.

1.  I don't want to be that way anymore.  Sin can only grow in darkness.

2.  I don't want you to think that your struggles are somehow unique to the human experience.

3.  Then because of one and two, we will not walk alone.