JANUARY 27 • TRUE LEADERSHIP
Authenticity
For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Romans 7:15
This is a difficult one because to be authentic, we need to act in a way that shows how we really feel, but at the same time, there is also a decorum to display that doesn’t make it all about us. So how do we properly be authentic?
There’s so much in today’s culture about being the best version of yourself — about being transparent, authentic — who’s to say what is the best version of our self? Us? Or God? If I am fearfully and wonderfully made by God, isn’t it God who knows best? From a personality perspective, about half of us are nice enough naturally to display an authenticity that doesn’t have some toxic realm to it. Half of us need to think seriously before we speak or we will offend someone or potentially say something stupid if we are totally… authentic. So when should we not be authentic?
When we’re morally wrong. When we’re being mean. When it’s all about us. When we cannot show the Fruit of the Spirit. When we cannot control ourselves. Those are the times when we need to exemplify good character (Ephesians 4:29) and just be still. We can always talk about the WHAT that is in us authentically, we just need to do it in the proper HOW.
Being authentic isn’t simply saying anything that comes to mind. There may be times when we have to be really honest with someone (the WHAT), but it’s rare, if ever, the time to be cruel, nasty, or harsh about it (the HOW). Being mean doesn’t make us authentic. We can be honest and candid without being cruel. Authenticity is not a license to be unkind. God is never unkind with us and calls us to be kind and gentile with one another — even while correcting (Galatians 6:1). The Fruit of the Spirit is all about loving attitudes. The people that are truly authentic are those who tell the truth because they know the truth and are right about the subject, and who do so in a way that the HOW doesn’t offend but the WHAT does! (if it needs to). Do unto others… All of us have done wrong at some point and fallen short… and it is at that point that we hope the most, that those around us, who are authentic, will remember their own faux paus and sins. Maybe we just need a paradigm shift in our authenticity…
Pray, Lord let me speak the truth in love whenever I open my mouth.
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