You know those moments when someone drops a “God’s got this” in your lap like it’s a mic drop? Or when you’re grieving, and someone tosses out a well-meaning “Heaven needed another angel”?
Yeah. Me too. And I’m done with it.
I don’t hate faith. I despise fake.
I hate the polished language we use to dodge pain, bypass doubt, and shut down honest questions. I hate that we’ve built a whole Christian dialect, Christianese, full of phrases that sound spiritual but are often just performative noise.
“God won’t give you more than you can handle.”
“Everything happens for a reason.”
“Let go and let God.”
Christianese has become a costume. It’s words we wear to look like we’ve got it all together, to hide our fear or control the room, to project certainty when we’re actually falling apart inside. We say the “right” things so we look like good Christians, even when we haven’t prayed in weeks or are angry at God or just don’t know what the hell is going on.
And that’s not faith. That’s performance. But Jesus? He never played that game.
He didn’t walk around Galilee reciting sanitized slogans and platitudes. He wasn’t trying to impress the synagogue crowd with tidy theology. He wept. He flipped tables. He got down in the dirt. He called out hypocrisy louder than anyone else (see: Matthew 23). His harshest words weren’t for the sinners…they were for the fakers, and the biggest fakers were religious leaders.
“These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” (Mark 7:6)
Oof.
Christianese lets us talk about God without ever talking to God. It lets us show off our “faith” without living it. It makes us sound put-together when what we really need is to fall apart in front of God and say, “Help.”
It’s not vulnerability. It’s branding. Alas real faith is raw. It stutters. It weeps. It doubts and rages and wonders aloud. It’s unfiltered. It doesn’t need a script. It needs honesty.
So let’s retire the platitudes. Let’s stop being so eager to fix people’s pain with phrases that cost us nothing. Let’s stop performing and start being real.
- Instead of “Everything happens for a reason,” try:
“I’m so sorry you’re going through this.” - Instead of “Thoughts and prayers” try: “Can I sit with you?” Or better yet—actually pray, but you don’t have to announce it.
Jesus didn’t call us to perform faith. He called us to live it. To love each other. And love doesn’t sound like a Hallmark card. It sounds like showing up, shutting up, and holding space.
Scripture for the non-performative path:
- “Jesus wept.” (John 11:35) — Not “Don’t cry.” He cried with them.
- “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) — If Jesus could say it, so can we.
- “Let your yes be yes and your no be no.” (Matthew 5:37) — Speak plainly. No fluff.
- “Woe to you… you clean the outside of the cup, but inside you are full of greed and self-indulgence.” (Matthew 23:25) — Jesus called out religious fakeness. Hard.
Rowdy and Redeemed 