Right now I’m sitting in my office half dressed.

I got up this morning and it was cold so I put on the shirt I’m planning on wearing today… but I didn’t change my pajama pants.

If you were able to stand the other side of the desk from me, you’d think, from what you saw, that that I’m dressed. The top half of my body is all that’s visible above the desk and so you’d have no reason to think anything other than that I’m fully dressed.

If You stepped around the desk though, or if I stood up, you’d see that I’m only dressed on the top half of my body. My legs are still ready to go back to bed. My pajamas are still ruling the day down south.

Why am I saying this?

Well, it’s because the same is true of my spiritual life.

The part that most people see looks like it’s all nicely dressed, ready for anything, just as any good Christian man should be. If you get close enough to see the whole of me though, you’ll see that the ‘dressed’ part, the part that looks how it’s supposed to look is only one part of the story.

There’s a whole other part of my life beneath the visible surface that doesn’t look quite like it’s ‘supposed’ to.

I’m not trying to announce here that I have some deep, dark secret that would ruin everything if it came out… I’m just being honest about the reality of being a Christian in a fallen world.

I’m not perfect. I don’t have it all together (as anyone who has been following me for any time will know). I may appear to be have it together more than you spiritually but it’s not true, you just only see part of the story.

Today I want to encourage you that if you’re feeling like a ‘second-class Christian’ or a failure in your Christian walk that you’re not!

The bible tells us that we’re being refined and purified, being made new. If we’re still going through the process of being refined, if the work isn’t finished yet then we can’t expect to be ‘perfect’.

If you’re like me and you feel like a fraud or a hypocrite sometimes because it feels like people have a false opinion of you then I’m here to tell you that you’re normal and it’s OK.

I’m not trying to justify those things in your life that you know are ungodly or wrong that you’re clinging on to when you know you need to let go but I am telling you you’re not alone. We are all walking the path. We all stumble, we all fall, we all have our triumphs and our complete failures – and God sees it all and keeps on loving us through it.

Lift up your head, don’t be ashamed of the pajamas you’re still wearing underneath your dress clothes – but don’t hang on to them either. Allow God to remove them and replace them and continue the work that he has started in you.

Finally, always remember when you meet someone super-spiritual or holier-than-thou that they may look perfect at first glance, but look closely enough and you’ll see their pajamas poking out somewhere.