The Humble List

Wayne asked for some examples of when I misused authenticity. It’s not a totally fair question since he already knows/experienced/was an accomplice to many of those times. But Wayne has never been fair. Entertaining, funny, sarcastic, and loyal but never fair. Love ya’, bro.

I thought about rolling out a few stories illustrating my wonderful knack of zinging the moment with incredible clarity and sarcasm. There are quite a few of them, more than there should be. I’ve decided against that as well. Besides that, those of you who’ve read this blog from the beginning…both of you…could probably recall better than I specific entries that I need to repent about.

I will say a couple of more things about this whole topic. “I was just being real” isn’t a good excuse for hurting someone. In fact, it’s a terrible one. And while I can’t remember an instance when I was real for the purpose of hurting someone…I can recall many that I did so for the purpose of ‘being right.’ It’s not that much better of a reason. For a long time I thought it was.

I think most of us realize that sometimes the truth hurts. Better are the wounds of a friend than the kisses of an enemy. Most of us understand that. Fewer do it. Even fewer than that pursue those kinds of relationship. But if you only pursue that for the purpose of being right, it’s a dead end. You’ll spend more time justifying your life, judging others and in the end, you’re just a pain in the end.

The real point I’m trying to make is this – real authenticity is being real about who you are for the purpose of life change. Just like true spiritual transformation is being formed to the image of Jesus for the sake of others. There is a subtle but important difference in being changed and authentic for the sake of being ‘right.’

It’s the difference in being a servant and being religious, difference between a repentant tax collector and a Pharisee. Difference in being a pastor (in the best sense of the word) and being a super-Christian.

And hopefully that’s the difference I’m trying to accentuate now.