We are those people.

• We are the people who ignore the hurts of others, as long as someone takes care of us.
• We are the people who yell at one another in the car on the way to church, then climb out with sunny smiles to demonstrate it’s all good.
• We are the people who think God is somehow more impressed with us because we make up our own rules and follow them.
• We are the people who have gone into deep debt to keep up appearances.
• We are the people who look down on others who are different.
• We are the people who take the easy way out and log on to the porn site.
• We are the people who work fifty-plus hours a week, trying to prove our worth.
• We are the people with holes punched in our walls and doors unhinged from slamming.
• We are the people who spend hours a day on social media, trying to convince people that our lives are better than theirs.

Most of us have some conception, in our heart of hearts, that a lot of the pieces never seem to be mended. But we will go to great lengths to avoid the full, honest embrace of our condition.

There are too many voices telling us to keep up appearances, because if we don’t, our life will fall apart.

There are too many voices telling us to entertain ourselves, and if we don’t think the bad thoughts, the bad stuff will somehow trickle away.

That’s why the people of our times have become masters of illusion, experts at covering pain, abusers of medication, slaves of financial debt, followers of fads, and partakers of loneliness. Because we won’t realize that the only solution for being broken is … brokenness.

By brokenness, I mean the acknowledgment of it, the full and unflinching acceptance that we are bankrupt, poor in spirit, and have nothing to offer.*

*Excerpt by Kyle Idleman
from his book, "The End of Me."