I was watching The Chosen the other day and at the end of the episode, they showed the bloopers. I love bloopers!   I found myself literally laughing out loud as I watched Jonathan Roumie, the actor who plays Jesus, forget his lines and try to keep a straight face.

 

The bloopers were not only entertaining, but they served as a good reminder that it’s a TV show.  Not real life.  Jonathan Roumie is an actor.  Not Jesus.  He’s such a great actor that we might forget that sometimes.

 

We can be pretty good actors too. Thanks to social media, the world often sees our “show” but not our bloopers.  If you look at my facebook page, you will see beautiful vacations, straight A students, a perfect marriage, and a spotless house.   You won’t see a picture of me getting carsick on the way to the beach or meeting with a teacher about a bad grade.  You won’t see a picture of me arguing with my husband or losing my temper at the grocery store.  And you sure won’t see a picture of my messy house because I intentionally angle the camera so you won’t see that mess! 

 

Come on – you do that too don’t you? I can’t be the only one!

 

Why do we do this?   Why do we try to make our lives look so perfect? What’s the point? Do we think that people wouldn’t like us if they saw our “behind the scenes”? In some cases, that may be a red flag that we need to make some serious changes. In other cases, however, it’s an insecurity, fearing others won’t like us if we’re not perfect. But to be honest with you, I don’t enjoy being around perfect people. 

 

I enjoy being around real people.  People who will invite me into their messy homes and let me ride in their dirty cars.  People who have fat rolls and chipped fingernails.  People who are better at ordering pizza than preparing gourmet meals.  People who love me.  The real me.  Not the facebook one.  Those are the people I enjoy.  I call them back door friends.  They’re the ones that can come in through the laundry room and not judge me.  They’re the ones I don’t have to put on makeup or fix my hair for. 

 

When you think about it, that’s the kind of people Jesus liked to hang out with too.  He wasn’t impressed by the Pharisees who appeared to have it all together.  He preferred to hang out with regular, real people.  His closest friends, His closest followers, the disciples, were just an ordinary group of guys who made mistakes and didn’t always get it right.

 

In fact, that final week before Jesus went to the cross, His disciples were a mess. (Luke 22)

  • They argued at the Passover meal over who was the greatest.
  • Peter, James and John fell asleep when they were supposed to be keeping watch for Jesus at the Garden of Gethsemane.
  • Peter denied even knowing Jesus. Not once. Not twice. But THREE times!
  • Judas accepted a bribe to betray Jesus and identified Him to the arresting soldiers.

I mean, they were a REAL MESS! And God loved them anyway. I think that’s why He included all their bloopers and mistakes in the Bible. So that we would see that even His closest followers weren’t perfect. And if He could love them, He can love us.

 

Our earthly lives will never be perfect. That’s why He went to the cross for us. One day when we stand before the Father, all of our bloopers and imperfections will be covered by the blood of Jesus. And by His blood, we will be made perfect for eternity.

 

In the meantime, I will strive to live a life that honors and glorifies Him. But I don’t and won’t always get it right. In fact, I very often get it wrong. And God sees it all. He sees way beyond the “show”. He sees all the bloopers. All the mistakes. And He loves me anyway. But when Christians act like Pharisees, and make the world think we’re perfect and we’ve got it all together- we lead the world to believe that they could never be good enough for God. And that could not be further from the truth.

 

So maybe… just maybe… we should let our bloopers shine for all to see that we “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. (Romans 3:23) And He loves us anyway.

 

“But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

 

Thank You Jesus! 

Teresa Breeding
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