By Blessed Kachepa, writing from Zambia
Lately, I’ve been thinking about how easy it is to live with filters. Not just on our photos, but in the way we present ourselves to the world; how we smile when we’re hurting or say ‘I’m fine’, when really, we’re breaking.
I’ve done it. There have been moments in my life when I’ve sat in church and lifted my hands in worship, while quietly wondering if God was even there or listening to me. There are times when I prayed so deeply but the answer didn’t come, and I felt like God had let me down and had failed me.
I’ve edited my prayers because I was scared to bring the unfiltered me before God. I felt like he expected better from me. Instead of admitting those feelings, I filtered them. I smiled, I said the right words, ‘everything happens for a reason’, ‘it is well’, and I acted as though everything was okay.
But the truth is, faith isn’t always polished. It can be messy and raw and sometimes we need to be honest and cry out from our hearts: ‘God, I believe, I want to believe, but please help my unbelief.’
The Bible doesn’t hide the raw, unfiltered struggles of faith. In the middle of unimaginable suffering, Job cried, ‘I cry out to you, God, but you do not answer’ (Job 30:20). Job’s honesty, his willingness to voice his pain and confusion without pretending, inspires me. It shows me that faith doesn’t always have to look perfect. Many of us now draw strength from Job’s honesty.
If I only bring God the filtered, surface level version of myself, I miss out on opportunities for deeper healing.
Our world is desperate for unfiltered faith. With so much pressure to perform, to look perfect, to succeed at all costs, we need reminders that God doesn’t need the edited version of us. He loves the real, raw version. The unfiltered me, the unfiltered you.
Being unfiltered is about daring to show up in front of God and others as we really are: broken, questioning, confused and tired. It’s about being able to tell him when we are failing and drowning in our questions and doubts.
The gospel itself is unfiltered. Jesus didn’t come for perfect people with perfect faith; he came for the weary, the burdened, the doubters and the sinners.
I’ve also realised this through my work in dentistry. Brushing your teeth is good, but it never removes everything. There are hidden places a toothbrush can’t reach, spots where plaque quietly builds up. That’s why patients need a deep clean. In the same way, I can present a ‘cleaned up’ version of myself to people and even to God, but that doesn’t mean I’m whole. If I only bring God the filtered, surface level version of myself, I miss out on opportunities for deeper healing.
So, my hope for this Unfiltered series is that it becomes a space where we can drop the masks. A space where we can speak honestly about life, faith and all the struggles in between. A space where we can admit when it feels like God is silent and declare that he is still good. A space where we never feel like we have to be perfect all the time before people and God.
Today, I choose to be unfiltered with God, with myself and with those around me. I will stop hiding the doubts, the fears and the messy parts of my life. I will let him work in the hidden corners. Unfiltered me is not perfect but is enough for God to use and that is a truth worth living by every single day.
