Power after Overcoming

One of the hardest things for church people to understand is that our negative resume is where our greatest strength lies. It is not the things that I have not done that give me power, but rather the things I have overcome or recovered from. Do not misunderstand me. I am not saying that we should not be pure and obedient. But sometimes our purity may be due to the absence of opportunity, and sometimes our obedience may not be from the heart. A good case could be made that the essence of American Christianity is concealment. We encourage people to go underground with their sin. We pastors do it when continually tell our success stories from the pulpit, or when we preach an idealized version of the spiritual life that no one really lives. People in the church do it when they judge others. The message people get is "hide your sins if you do not want to be judged." I find that people are encouraged when I share my failures publicly. Your story is very powerful, especially the part where you have gotten back up from a stumble, where you have recovered from a serious mistake. Your story is powerful because it is real. We need more real people in the church today and fewer religious people.