At one point in the night I was sitting in the middle seat of the sofa with my daughter, my husband on one side and a young man on the other. The young man was clearly texting back and forth (to who, I don’t know) but at one point I glanced over and saw his response to a message… He simply typed in the “laughing face” emoji. Like 5 of them. As I looked up, I couldn’t help but notice that he didn’t have even the slightest smirk on his face! Not even a grin. Yet, he managed to text the exact opposite.
He lied.
He wasn’t “laughing out loud” or “laughing his butt off”, he was actually sitting straight faced and bored.
What is my point?
In our society, we are constantly given an opportunity to share one image while privately being something else. There’s always an opportunity to “LOL” when you’re not laughing or say “Awww…” when you really don’t care. We can pretty much say anything, while feeling and/ or doing the opposite.
The fight to authenticity and transparency is an uphill battle. It’s become way too easy to live a filtered persona behind a computer screen or handheld device. Where is the authenticity? Where is the integrity? Where is the transparency? It’s there; we just need to be that much more diligent in seeking it out.
I was in the car home from the same trip and a series of thoughts crossed my mind, as if the Holy Spirit was prompting me to do a little soul searching myself.
“What if everything you thought privately was said publicly?”
“What if your thoughts and words became a movie to play out for all those around you?”
“What if your personal life became public?”
“Would you be OK with that?”
“Would you be embarrassed?”
“Would you be ashamed?”
“Would you be in trouble?”
“Or would you be content with this exposure?”
“Would your audience see the same person you portray yourself to be?”
The truth is, everything we do privately is seen.
Everything we say is heard.
The person we are behind closed doors isn’t a secret.
God sees us. He hears us. He knows us.
After all this, I prayed, “God teach me to live with authenticity and transparency in a filtered world.”
I really don’t want to live a life that LOOKS good on paper, on the small screen, on social media, on the alter, on whatever platform is currently available to me, I want to live a life that FEELS good on the inside because I KNOW it is pleasing to my first audience, God.
I don’t know if any of this rings truth in your ears, but I wanted to share this experience with you in order to spark something in you, as it was sparked in me. There’s nothing better than living in the freedom Christ died for. We are free from sin, free from death, free from shame, free from condemnation and we are also free to be our authentic self, the person God created us to be. There’s no need to live filtered and edited when God has already called us His masterpiece.
I’ve heard my pastor say before, “God can’t bless who you pretend to be”. We all have issues, we all have problems, and we all have struggles. Being brave enough to accept those things for what they are is the first step in allowing God use those very things to become who we are meant to be. An unfiltered, unedited son or daughter of the Most High who is fearless and relentless in their pursuit of purpose and freedom.
Say what you mean, mean what you say. Let your authenticity as a Christian attract attention to Christ.
