The Tempting Pull of Perfection

Genuine. My grandma was a pretty genuine person. In most cases she was the person everyone saw her to be. She was straightforward to the point of blunt, a little rough around the edges but she had a beautiful caring heart for people. Whether it was received positively or negatively she wasn’t afraid to speak her mind, but in all of it she was honest. Honest about herself and about others. She didn’t seem preoccupied with what others thought of her. She wasn’t perfect, she made her share of mistakes but…she was pretty authentic.

I try to be authentic. But it’s not always as easy as you think it would be. Expectations get in the way. Selfishness interferes. Pride surfaces. Fear creeps out from behind the corner. Sometimes I’m tempted to be real only to the point that it becomes uncomfortable. Then I retreat a little bit back into the shadows of the mystery, back to the place where I feel safe because fewer people know my faults and weaknesses. I don’t think we set out to be fake but I wonder if it’s kind of like convincing ourselves that we’re not lying when we strategically withhold part of the story. Why do you think we feel the need to do that?

Who are some of the most genuine or authentic people you know? When I think about those people I start envisioning how I might be more like them. Being around genuine people is infectious. The way they live invites you to cross over into the authentic side. Authenticity isn’t simply being an open book, but knowing the appropriate time to share a few deeper paragraphs. The more genuine people I know embrace both their strengths and their weaknesses in ways that bring honor and glory to God. They are authentic because they live in the freedom to walk beside me through this life as together we share in the peaks and the valleys and the journey back and forth between the two. They are real because they know life is not about what they can do but about what God can do through them.

The authentic are not perfect, they simply seem to recognize the tempting pull of perfection as she softly beckons us to live as hypocrites…and they turn a deaf ear. Sure at times they may listen, but more often than not they walk forward in faith trusting the One whose love for all of us defines authentic!