Until a few weeks ago, I had never heard the name Ashley Madison. As the news of hackers infiltrating this site and sharing its contents has made the news, I have learned more. It doesn’t surprise me that a website dedicated to helping married people secretly have an affair exists. And it doesn’t surprise me that people who have less than affectionate feelings for Christianity, and those more liberal Christians have pounced on the news that Josh Duggar, oldest child of reality TV family the Duggars and former director of the Family Research Council , has been outed as one of those users of the Ashely Madison website.

I am not surprised nor do I delight in such revelations as this story reveals many layers of hurt and damage:

Whenever Christians forget that not we are not a collection of perfect people living perfect lives, we are destined for a fall…and sometimes that fall is very public and humiliating.

Whenever Christians present the faith as primarily following a set of rules or merely assenting to right belief, we are destined for a fall…and sometimes that fall is very public and very damaging to the Christian faith overall.

Whenever Christians delight in the faults and failures of others, we are destined for a fall…and sometimes that fall is very humbling as we recognize the reflection of our own brokenness in the brokenness of others.

Our shared brokenness is actually what connects us to each other and to God. It's not our successes, its not our piety that connects us to each other and God.

I heard an amazing interview with Nadia Bolz-Weber in which she describes the foundation of recognizing and confessing  brokenness within her ministry. “I’m not kidding, that’s all I have to offer. My confession of my brokenness and the confession of my faith–that’s literally all I have to offer…Our shared brokenness is actually what connects us to each other and to God. It’s not our successes, its not our piety that connects us to each other and God.”

I hear a lot of non-Christians criticize the church because “it is nothing more than a collection of hypocrites”…to which I say, “of course it is.” One of the greatest sins of someone like Josh Duggar is the act of publicly decrying (to his belief) the sins of others while forgetting that he himself is a broken, hypocritical sinner. We all are. And it really is only in naming and accepting that reality that we can really experience the mercy and grace of God and the power of God to help us get back up and do the really really hard work of being Christ-followers, families, communities, churches.

I love the words of Stephen Curtis Chapman’s new song...however you define the enemy, these words are powerfully true: “The enemy trembles every time, because he knows the battle is no longer mine when I fall on my knees.” My hope today is that through a prayer of confessing  and owning your short comings and brokenness, you will experience not the accolades of others or the fortune of fame and political power, but the mercy of a loving God who puts all our broken pieces back together again.