Tiffany, Embarrassment, and Why We Stop Pretending
For me, one of those moments involved a girl named Tiffany in eighth grade and a PE class sit-up test.
I really liked her. She was cute, had a sweet smile, and every time I saw her, my heart did what middle school hearts do when they are convinced they have found true love. I would sit by the phone, dial almost all of her number, and then chicken out. One day I finally got brave enough to press the last number. She answered. I panicked and hung up. Real smooth.
Then one day in PE, she had to hold my feet while I did sit-ups. You can probably see where this is going. I came up, a certain sound escaped from a certain place, and whatever hope I had of impressing Tiffany vanished into the gym air with that moment. She looked disgusted. I was mortified. Romance was over before it ever began.
Funny story. Embarrassing memory. But also a useful parable.
Most of us spend a huge part of our lives trying to impress people. We want to look stronger, smarter, more spiritual, more put together than we are. We manage our image. We curate our lives. We present the version of ourselves that seems most likely to be accepted.
And then life eventually does what middle school PE did to me. It humbles us. It exposes us. It reminds us that we are not nearly as impressive as we hoped.
That exposure can become a gift if it drives us toward honesty.
God is not looking for a polished performance. He is not impressed by a carefully managed spiritual image. He already knows the real story.
2 Corinthians 12:9 (ESV)
“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’”
Weakness is not where grace goes to die. It is where grace becomes visible.
One of the best things that can happen to us is the death of pretending. It hurts. It embarrasses. It strips away the illusion that we are in control. But once pretending dies, grace has room to breathe.
And honestly, if Tiffany taught me nothing else, she taught me this: eventually, everybody finds out you are human.
So you might as well stop pretending you are not.