The Appeal of Authenticity

I must first give a shout out to my good friend, Travis Cardwell, who is keeping me accountable on maintaining fresh blogs. I appreciate the few of you that read this and hopefully all of our blogs can promote Kingdom-living actions in our lives and thoughts.

Today I have the honor of meeting up with a good friend, my former pastor Worth Whitley and I'm looking forward to our time together. I attended a church called "Community Church" for about 5 years and the pastors and people at the church were truly the most genuine, sincere folks I've ever been around. We would gather and talk and just be honest about our sins and struggles and fears. I have to admit that it was weird at first. After slowly crawling out of my shell of comfort and security in my private life I began to grow and experience real church and real community. I had entered a new world.

That being said, I have come to realize that most people are not authentic. Through my work at the bank, time at SWBTS, time in other churches, time with other friends, and past experiences it is really hard to find genuine people. There are a million people that will shake your hand and smile, but just a handful of people that will really listen to what you have to say. The phrase "How are you doing?" is always to be followed with "Great!" or "Fine." or maybe even "Peachy." (for those of you who try to be a little different, but is that really any different?)

People are attracted to honest, genuine people. Authenticity works. As I have been going through some changes this summer I have found myself leaning on those who I feel are real, sincere people. They care about me. They don't tell me what I want to hear, but what I need to hear. Being honest is much more vunerable. Perhaps that means telling somebody something that is the exact opposite of what they are wanting to hear. It is not easy to say things that might not be taken well. But aren't we commanded to speak the truth in love? If we truly love people then we will speak truth even when it is not popular.

If we want to be effective in ministry we must be authentic. We must admit our sins. Our imperfections. Our fears. Our failures. Has anybody else realized that we are not fooling anyone? When spending time with others we need to learn to listen to what is going on. We need to love and pray for folks. Authenticity breeds more authentic people. Try it, you would be surprised.

Jesus was always authentic. He met people where they were at and loved them and ministered uniquely each time. We need to exchange our cookie-cut molds of fixing things and embrace people for who they are. This is not easy. This will require time. This will require effort. This will require Spirit-led living and strength from our Creator. We need to die to our schedules and plans and stop putting people off or fitting them in. We won't claim to have all the answers. We won't claim to have all the medicines. We won't claim to have what it takes. Living authentic lives will cause us to be exposed and naked and the only boast we will claim will be the grace of God and the crucified Messiah who endured God's wrath.

Let us embrace who we really are. Let us stop trying to outdo one another. Let us stop seeking attention and look to the only One who deserves attention. There is a hurting world who needs a real, authentic Savior. Let us show them our Messiah through genuine love and sincere living. Let us admit that we aren't perfect. We aren't all the ones with the cure. Let us love them by speaking real truth about our real Christ.