That tearing sound you hear is God stripping away pretense. He allows only so many layers to build up before he rips them off our politics, our piety, and our personas like grimy old bandages. It hurts when God strips away pretense because we have to look at our own delusions and rev up our consciences to leave the gravitational force of groupthink. God strips away pretense so we can be wise and recognize that the truth is staring back at us. “Wisdom is directly in front of an understanding person, but the eyes of a fool are looking around all over the world” (Proverbs 17:24 GW).

Pretenders double down on lies. Fallacies become a twisted orthodoxy reinforced with predictable rhetoric and sketchy logic. But God’s Word clears things up for us, and its truth is as plain as the nose on our face. We can stop pretending and trust his wisdom.

God gives us the wisdom to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Where two or three are gathered in his name, he is in the midst of them. Where more than two or three are gathered for some other reason, there is going to be some pretending going on. It is not our responsibility to unmask every pretender. It is our duty to recognize pretense in our own lives and confess it before God. And it is our calling to be honest brokers of the light and truth that will never fade away.