Authenticity. Do you have a word? You know how some people (usually in January) pick a word that is going to be their word for the year. Personally, I’ve never jumped on that bandwagon. But this word, “Authenticity” has been floating around my head for a couple of weeks. It’s one of those ideas that keeps coming up in different areas. So, I decided God was/is trying to tell me something. Authenticity, when talking about a person, means, according to Merriam Webster’s Dictionary: “not false, true to one’s own personality, spirit or character, genuine, honest, real, true”. 

Authenticity is one of those things we don’t talk about much, but one that I’m gonna guess every single one of us struggles with. I mean it’s hard to be 100% real all the time. We humans can get pretty good at “looking the part” and acting the way we think we are supposed to act, saying what we think we are supposed to say, trying our best to give the appearance of fitting in and/or keeping up with those around us. Not only is that way of thinking not authentic, it’s also burdensome to live double lives. Constantly feeling like you don’t measure up can be exhausting as well as frustrating. Yet many of us seem to fall into believing that lie pretty easily. 

In Ephesians 4, the apostle Paul tells us to live a life worthy of our calling. It makes sense that part of living up to our calling is being authentic and real. On the surface that seems like a hard ask – being 100% real all the time. But wouldn’t it actually be easier? Here is what I mean. Being authentic before God and others doesn’t mean you have your act pulled together, never having any doubts or struggles. That’s simply a lie that many of us churchgoers believe- it tells us we must be super Christains, with perfect lives, perfect marriages, perfect children (even our adult children), perfect houses, jobs, etc…. Basically, we were told and believed – if you want to lead other people to Christ you’ve got to appear to be perfect. Little do we realize that being fake and/or inauthentic is exactly what leads others away from Christ. I mean think about this for a minute, don’t you think most people can spot a “fake” person just as quickly and easily as you can? 

Sometimes I wonder if this lie is reinforced by us not reading scripture completely. For instance take a look at Matthew 22:16-20. This is a well known passage, often referred to as the Great Commision, but let’s read verse 17 “When they saw him, they worshiped, but some doubted.” Isn’t funny how we rarely hear this part of the passage discussed. It’s like we don’t want to admit that it’s okay to have doubts from time to time. Guys! Jesus can handle our doubts, our mistakes, our questions. He can even handle our failures – isn’t that why Jesus came in the first place? Jesus never asks us to be perfect, but He does call us to be authentic. In 1 Peter, Peter reminds us to be holy because God is Holy, and in Matthew 22 Jesus Himself tells us to love the Lord your God with all you’ve got (my paraphrase). These commands are a call to be authentic, not perfect. It would be impossible for us to be holy while pretending to be someone we are not. But nowhere in Scripture does it say -be perfect! 

 You don’t have to look very hard in the Bible to find people living less than perfect lives.  Heck, just look at the disciples (the twelve dudes who were closest to Jesus while He was on earth). Pretty much all of them lived messed up lives. They doubted (Thomas, feeding of 5000, Peter walking on water), they got angry (Peter), struggled with pride  and argued about who was better (James & John), they fell asleep instead of praying (John, Peter), they went back to fishing only a few days after they saw Jesus resurrected, they failed to understand His plan time and time again! But guess what – they were authentic! Jesus loved them, forgave them,  restored them, even going so far as to use these less than perfect men to start His church! The disciples asked questions, experienced failure, missed the point, but God still used them! So why do we think we have to pretend that we are more than we are?! Why do we work so hard at “playing the part” instead of just being open and honest, admitting our failures and doubts. Asking questions when we really don’t understand, saying “you know what, I’m not sure” when we don’t know the answers to questions we are asked. If you are struggling with doubt, what or how to pray, etc. Let’s just try being authentic and see what happens! God already knows the real us anyway and He loves us in spite of how messed up we are.