Cover Up Your Ugly

Brokenness.

We run from it - pull the covers over our head and refuse to acknowledge it. We are quick to point it out in others, but slow to recognize it in ourselves. It's painful and pain is a bad thing, ergo...brokenness is bad.

We're ashamed of being broken, we're ashamed to deal with the hurt of being broken, the messiness of being broken.

We're afraid that someone else might find out. They might find out that we have a gross attitude, they might find out that we struggle with profanity, they might find out that we struggle with loneliness, with trust, with loving others, with loving ourselves.

What if the world discovers that we're not what we look like? What if they realize that the outgoing, smiling excitement is covering up brokenness? What if the facade starts to crack just like the inside? People would start to see what's really going on, not just what we let them see.

What if the outer shell starts to crack and our ugly hangs out?

What if it does?

King David's did.

"You're the One I've violated, and you've seen it all, seen the full extent of my evil.  You have all the facts before you; whatever you decide about me is fair.  I've been out of step with you for a long time, in the wrong since before I was born.  What you're after is truth from the inside out. Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.  Soak me in your laundry and I'll come out clean, scrub me and I'll have a snow-white life.  Tune me in to foot tapping songs, set these once-broken bones to dancing.  Don't look too close for blemishes, give me a clean bill of health.  God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.  Don't throw me out with the trash, or fail to breathe holiness in me.  Bring me back from gray exile, put a fresh wind in my sails!  Give me a job teaching rebels your ways so the lost can find their way home.  Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God, and I'll sing anthems to your life-giving ways.  Unbutton my lips, dear God; I'll let loose with your praise.  Going through the motions doesn't please you, a flawless performance is nothing to you.  I learned God-worship when my pride was shattered.  Heart shattered lives ready for love don't for a moment escape God's notice. Make Zion the place you delight in, repair Jerusalem's broken-down walls.  Then you'll get real worship from us, acts of worship small and large, including all the bulls they can heave onto your altar!" -Psalm 51:4-18

King David got it.  He cracked and his ugly just started pouring out. He was broken. But was it a bad thing? He recognized his ugliness, he recognized his brokenness and he asked God to do something different. "God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life."

We run from acknowledging our brokenness, but until we acknowledge that something is broken, it can't be fixed.

David said "Going through the motions doesn't please you, a flawless performance is nothing to you." When we refuse to acknowledge our brokenness we're just going through the motions, putting on a performance in hopes that people won't see us for who we really are, but David said: "I learned God-worship when my pride was shattered."

We're afraid to let go of our pride, afraid that if we start to deal with one issue that it will all unravel like our favorite fifteen year old sweater, afraid that God's not going to be there to catch all of the pieces.

That's not true.

"Heart shattered lives ready for love don't for a moment escape God's notice."

So let go of the brokenness, Stop trying to hold it all together and cover up your ugly.

It's not going to work.

Sometimes we need to let the broken pieces fall off and let our ugly hang out so The Lord can clean it off and start again.