What does that have to do with being phony? Take a look at modern-day Christianity. The name of the game is image. Look happy… no, better yet, look joyful. Pretend like you don’t have any problems, even though your struggles may be so evident that everyone you come in contact with knows you are severely flawed. Be strong. Telling people about your problems might hurt your witness. Outwardly, we create this appearance of joy and thankfulness– or of righteousness even– but inwardly we’re dying for something that will ease the pain we try to hide.

We don’t talk much about gluttony or materialism or greed or racism or hatred or lustful thoughts. Instead, we pick on other people’s issues. Smoking, drinking, prostitution and drugs, we feel safe condemning those things, especially if they aren’t sins we struggle with. If they are, we pretend and plea the fifth.

Christians are often the first to talk about moral decline and breakdown in the family. We’re really good at criticizing divorce and judging adulterers. But if we’d step away from the pulpit and look in the mirror, the reality is more then 50 percent of Christian marriages end in divorce too.

We’re phony. That’s why you don’t hear many people in the church talking about Jesus as the wonderful counselor that Scripture tells us He is. To talk about Him in this role is to admit one needs to be counseled.

It’s OK, really. Jesus gave counsel all the time. He counseled a woman at a well in Samaria, He counseled a Pharisee named Nicodemus and a tax collector named Levi. He offered assurance to a thief on a cross, and told a denier named Peter there was a bigger plan, and everything would be alright.

The flaws of the very people Christ came to save were not hidden in the Bible. James and John had some major anger problems. Matthew was a thief who betrayed his own people. Thomas struggled with doubt and Peter with denial. Paul was a persecutor and a murderer. Then there is Jesus. The wonderful counselor who came to show them the way.

The message of Scripture isn’t to suck it up and put on a mask. It isn’t to be strong. The message is that we are broken and we need help. We need a counselor, and not only do we need one, we need Him to be wonderful. We need him to be supernatural. We need God in the flesh. God knows we’re broken, and our brothers and sisters in Christ need to realize it and accept it as well.

If we’re not broken, we don’t need Jesus, and if we don’t need Jesus we can all sleep in on Sundays. Jesus is our healer, and that applies to emotional wounds as well. If you’re hurting, Jesus loves you and grieves with you. If you’re abused, you can bring that to Him. If you’ve been through a divorce and you just can’t shake the loneliness and the bitterness and you’re tired of forcing a smile, God understands your need. That’s why He promised a Wonderful Counselor more than 700 years before that counselor showed up.

Run to the counselor. He sure did come a long way to help you.