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Missionaries are screwed up
Missionaries are like saints right? They’re still alive, while saints usually have to be dead to seen as a saint, but missionaries are as close as you come to a living saint. Is there anything special about missionaries? They go to far off places and try to love people enough to earn the right to be heard. I know some and they’re pretty awesome people usually. Then there’s the “very worst missionary”. Her name is Jamie and she tells her story at Jamie The Very Worst Missionary. I’ll be lucky to get you back to read the rest of the post after you click on that link.
Most people cuss
Jamie’s very honest. She cusses sometimes too but honestly most Christians… cuss so she’s not that unique. What’s different is that she cusses and doesn’t really apologize for it. She also talks about how screwed up she is and doesn’t apologize for it. She’s not really looking to stay screwed up but she realizes that she is and she writes about it. Being screwed up is really the starting point for being a Christian in the first place. Perfect people don’t need Jesus to help them right? Jamie’s not perfect and she goes into great detail in her writing about the many frustrations she experiences in life because of herself. She’s vulnerable. She’s clear. She’s normal. She’s you and me. I don’t have a clue how much traffic she gets to her blog (which doesn’t have a fancy theme or lots of bells and whistles) but I know it’s ranked about 300,000 sites better than mine according to Alexa.com. The point is, she’s popular with a lot of people. (By the way Jamie, if you want a new theme for your blog let me know and we’ll get you one. I’ll keep reading your stuff either way.
Pretending takes a lot of work
She lives in Costa Rica with her family. They’re normal. They don’t live deep in the Amazon and they don’t live in the gutters of Calcutta. They do live where live is more difficult than your life is though and that makes her story interesting. I envy her vulnerability and I strive for it in my writing. She’s brutally honest about her life and that’s just not normal. She’s normal but her honesty is not. People are drawn to her because she’s like them except she’s got the guts to speak her mind and heart. You and I should do this more. We should stop lying about who we are and just tell people that we’re not perfect. It would make life a lot easier because pretending takes a lot more energy than honesty. Pretending is like a spinning quarter. It looks cool for awhile but then it slows down and you have to pick it up and start all over. You have maintain it. Being real is just putting the money on the table and saying “That’s it. It’s a quarter. It’s not special.” It’s not very sexy to be normal but it’s a lot easier to maintain your sanity.
Your business is screwed up too
Since many of my readers own businesses I’m going to tell you the same thing I just told everyone else. Be vulnerable in your business. If you screw up, say so.
- If you don’t have it in stock send the customer to somewhere that does.
- If you ran out of an ingredient tell them you didn’t order enough and you’re sorry.
- If you forgot about my table then tell me you forgot about my table.
If you want to pretend like you’ve ALWAYS got your stuff together that’s fine…but it’s a lot of work and your customers won’t relate to you as well. Be human by admitting your imperfections. Keep working to improve those imperfections of course…but remember that perfection is a myth. Go check out Jamie’s blogand leave her some encouragement. She’s awesome.
You’re awesome
You’re awesome too. You’re screwed up but you’re awesome. We’re all screwed up. Admit it and stop pretending. Pretending takes too much energy.
