If you've never read...

Posers, Fakers and Wannabes by Brennan Manning (with Jim Hancock), please, please do.  And if you have it on your bookshelf, pull it out and read it again.  Either way, you'll want to have a highlighter handy.

I promise to avoid copying the whole book on this post.  So please keep reading... and click on the book cover above to listen to an 8 minute interview with Brennan Manning.

Who is this Poser, you ask?

Brennan:  This cunning Poser exploits my temporary amnesia to make me forget that everything I am is grace.  Everything.  Even the grace to grasp grace is grace.

Jim:  I've been advised by The Poser to inform you that, unlike Brennan, who will admit he's an alcoholic, sober by the grace of God, I've never been drunk, never smoked, never slept with anyone but my wife, never cheated on a test, never shoplifted.  You can see my record is quite clear, right?  Uh...not exactly.  All those statements are factually correct without being true at all because I've never been tempted to do those things.... (But) I don't think I get any points for what I haven't done because, sooner or later, I've done everything I've been seriously tempted to do.

Right now The Poser is very unhappy with me.  He doesn't like it when I talk this way.  He's still afraid of the truth, afraid you'll put down the book and ask for your money back because why in the world would anybody read a book by a sober drunk and a barely recovering fake?

I have a Poser.  She's the part of me that has to be/wants to be liked, be agreeable, be flexible.  This is all well and good... until it's not.  Until it leads to compromise, confusion, indecision.  She covers up all sorts of raw truths about my relationship with the Lord by comparing others' bad deeds with my lack of them.  And lately she's been working overtime to stifle a part of my heart that's crying out for help, for attention, for Living Water.

I want to put her to rest.

"May all your expectations be frustrated, may all your plans be

thwarted, may all your desires be withered into nothingness, that

 you may experience the powerlessness and poverty of a child and

sing and dance in the love of God who is Father, Son, and Spririt. 

And today on planet Earth, may you experience the wonder and

beauty of yourself as Abba's child and temple of the Holy Spirit

through Jesus Christ our Lord."

- Larry Hein