Why do I feel like I'm pretending to be happy?

Maybe the smile came easy this morning. Maybe the 'I'm fine' slipped out before you even thought about it. There is nothing wrong with you if it did. But somewhere underneath the performance, the real you is still there, waiting. And Jesus, who sat with fishermen in Galilee and asked them the hard questions over a fire, asks you one too.

"For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"

- Matthew 16:26 (KJV)

Find two minutes today, maybe in your car at lunch or in the bathroom before bed, and say out loud one true thing about how you are doing. Not to fix it. Just to stop pretending, even if only to yourself. That small moment of honesty is where something real can begin.

What one true thing about yourself have you been too afraid to say out loud?

God, I am tired of performing. I want to be known as I am, not as I pretend to be. Hold what is real in me, and help me trust that you are not disappointed by it. Amen.