IS BROKEN THE NEW BLACK? Seeing Through Transparency...

A friend of mine raised some interesting questions a few days ago and as I thought more about them, I’ve come up with even more questions but no answers. In both Christian and secular circles, there are several bloggers who have reached celebrity status by turning vulnerability into a business venture. They’ve found that if they are willing to live in glass houses, the world will pull up a chair and no one is throwing any stones. Instead, people find comfort in the full range of life’s situations and experiences. From the most mundane of household chores to the most heated of domestic disputes, people can identify, empathize, and be both encouraged and entertained. Transparency is trending and it seems like a good thing. The first time I encountered this was several years ago in a book about lies moms believe. It was liberating to realize that the things that happened in my family also happened in other families and there was no reason to shove some of this stuff into the closet. It really was normal and even healthy to have children who hadn’t changed their underwear in a week or who ate cold cereal for dinner. There was no shame in it anymore. It was awesome. But from those humble beginnings, I wonder if we’ve gotten more and more comfortable normalizing things that are less and less healthy. Just because everyone is doing it, doesn’t necessarily make it good or even OK. And has it encouraged those who make their living ‘telling all’ to have bigger and badder things to tell? The first time you throw open a closet with cameras rolling, it is scary. Vulnerability is risky and it takes courage. But there is excitement associated with risk and the adrenaline rush can be very addicting. And I wonder if all of this focus on our imperfections is making us more pre-occupied by things that used to fade into the backgrounds of our lives. Those things that haunt our thoughts at night can come to define our days when we bring them to the fore under the guise of transparency. If everyone knows my deepest, darkest secrets, do they become more impactful on my life? or less? There is no question, we are all broken. There are many areas where God has redeemed our brokenness and we have overcome and it is valuable to share those victories so that our past can benefit someone else’s present. But how much of our present brokenness should be on parade? Is it beneficial for us to wage a public battle against a private demon? Is it beneficial for others to watch that battle in real time? Several popular Christian bloggers have recently decided to normalize some pretty unBiblical things. I suspect the fallout will be more than they bargained for. Perhaps they took one risk too many. Time will tell.