Being Really…Real

Authentic. It's a word that is very much in vogue these days.

Of course, the word itself means to be genuine, realistic, and faithful to the original. It is the opposite of being fake, insincere, or even hypocritical.

There are two signs that advertise businesses in Alabaster, where I live, that feature that word prominently. I pass them both regularly and it always makes me think about this. One is on a billboard on Highway 119 for a tanning salon. The other is at a Mexican restaurant just off of Highway 31, behind the old downtown area.

The tanning salon billboard features the word "authentic" in big letters across the top, then gives a few details about their tanning booths, along with a picture of a tanned woman, on the rest of the billboard. Every time I go by it, I am reminded of the irony, and I wonder if the people who designed that billboard really thought it through. 

So if you want a "suntan," instead of sitting in the sun, you can pay money and go and lay on a bed of ultraviolet light, like a chicken spinning on a rotisserie, to get your skin pigment to change its color. There's nothing like that golden look of leathery tanning-booth-tanned skin that just screams "authentic." To borrow from the famous words of Inego Montoya from The Princess Bride, "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

The other establishment that uses the word in advertising their business does so in a completely different way. In fact, even the spelling is different. It says on the side of the building "autentic." There's something about a genuinely authentic Mexican restaurant that doesn't even use our English word "authentic" that validates its authenticity. The message is clear: if you want real Mexican food--and not Tex-Mex made for Americans--this is a place you might want to consider. Even their spelling reveals their authenticity. Or should I say autenticity?

But here's the point. You can tell people you are authentic all you want, but the proof is in whether your life is really...real. And that goes for you and me individually, as well as us, as a church, collectively. I have said before, I don't think there's anything more I desire for our church than for us to be "real." People are tired of surface-level fakes, especially when it comes to religion and churches. No one wants to hear someone talking the talk who does not walk the walk. 

Jesus felt the same way. He called out the Pharisees for their hypocrisy, quoting from the prophet Isaiah, "These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me." I don't want that to be said of me.

So here's an encouragement to take off the mask and resist the temptation to "fake it till you make it." Give yourself permission to "get real"--with yourself, with others, and most importantly, with the Lord. He already knows who you are, and the truth be told, most everyone around you does too.

I am glad to be in a church where there is freedom to be who I am, even when I don't have it all together. And instead of acting like we've got it together, we work together, to get it together, together. That's what church is for.

I am praying for you, as I hope you are for me, and I look forward to seeing you Sunday.

--Pastor Ken