(Grab a cup of coffee, tea, or hot chocolate as we engage in honest dialog.)
If you would stop faking and remove all of the falsehood from your life, what would happen? What would be different? Who would notice? If you take a closer look at all of the levels of falsehood and manipulation in our culture, you’ll see the erosion of truth. Truth is being exchanged for lies. Lying is now funny. The more you step over the lines, the more people will laugh at you. Entertainment has become the celebration of what’s wrong and making fun of what’s right. Humor, sarcasm, and lies are becoming the way that people communicate. You fake it so that you can make it, but the real, true self is becoming fragmented and shattered beyond repair. Who really knows what’s happening deep within you? Who really knows you and cares about you?
God knows everything about you, and He loves you. He knows the truth about you. You can’t hide from God (Psalm 139). He relentlessly pursues you, inviting you to be reconciled so that you are healed and whole and free and honest. You don’t have to fake anything with God. He already knows everything about you, and He loves you. Out of His incredible love for you, Jesus died on the cross to completely cover and remove your sin. He invites you to walk out of the dark cave that you’ve been hiding in. You don’t have to pretend anymore. You don’t have to fake or try to be better than you really are. You don’t have to do something to get people to like you or to think that you really care. You don’t have to get people around you to notice you, give you attention, or laugh at you.
Instead of turning to work, pleasure, entertainment, possessions, technology, food, alcohol, drugs, hobbies, or people to find comfort, acceptance, or approval, I want to invite you to return to your Creator. God designed you to get your core needs met from Him. He supplies all of your needs out of His abundant riches. You were made in love to love. Love is your core longing and your true nature. You were made in the loving image of God to become love expressed through your time, talents, and treasures. Today, I’m inviting you to be real with God, real with yourself, and real with someone who cares about you.
You may still be fighting God’s love, forgiveness, and embrace. You may not be in touch with your soul, your feelings, your God, or those nearby. You may be in survival mode, just trying to fake it one more day so that you can make it and survive. But deep within, high above, and all around you, God’s Spirit is inviting you to come let Him clean you out and fill you with His love, His truth, and His grace. God and you and those around you are tired of all of the faking and pretending and distancing. Let the walls come down. Let the walls that divide us and hide us come down.
I began my day reading in the Bible the story of how the Gibeonites pretended to be poor and needy because they were afraid of being wiped out by Joshua’s army (Joshua 9). Although they pretended and were dishonest, their faking contributed to their survival. They ended up being God’s woodchoppers and water carriers. Today’s Scriptural reflection caused me to ask, “How am I being real?” and “How am I faking?” “Is it okay to fake?” “When?” “How?”
If I only do what I feel like doing, I won’t get very far in life. I won’t do what I have to do or what I need to do. I don’t have to feel like getting up early to go to work in order to go to work. I don’t have to feel love and compassion in order to show it to people who need it. I don’t have to feel love in order to show love to my wife, to my family, or to my friends. I don’t have to feel like praying or digesting God’s Word to do it. I don’t have to feel anything to think right, to speak right, or to do right. I don’t have to fake or pretend to be anything or anyone that I’m not. I don’t have to do what I believe is wrong. I don’t have to do what you believe is right for me to do.
My challenge is let God’s love, truth, and grace fill my life so that what gets expressed is what is needed most in my life and in the lives of those around me. I have to let go of what’s not mine. I have to take hold of everything that God has given me. I only need to say “yes” to what God says “yes” for me to say and to do. I only need to say “no” to what God says “no” for me to say and to do. I don’t need to get my own way to be happy. I don’t have to live in my own preferences. But when I live in God’s preferences and in people’s preferences, my life works better. When I honor and love God and people, it’s amazing how much good that I get to enjoy. Yes, I encounter people’s toxic pain, and I deal with my own pain. But I don’t have to pretend that I’m okay when I’m not. When I’m weak, God demonstrates His strength. When I don’t have what it takes to do what I need to do, God’s Spirit takes over and does more than what I think is possible.
Being real isn’t an excuse to be lazy or rude or selfish. Being real doesn’t give me permission to step on you to get what I want. Being real doesn’t give me permission to laugh at you or to cut you down. Being real about what I lack allows me to be honest and ask God and you for help. Being real allows me to grieve and to be disgusted with how people are pretending and faking and just going through the motions in survival mode. Being real and allowing God’s love to take over my life compels me to step in and get involved to break the chains and patterns of insincerity. Being real compels me to do something to make a difference. That’s why I create communication tools and get involved in ways that make the gospel known in a backwards world where wrong seems right. Why? “Because You desire truth in my inmost being” (Psalm 51). As we speak the truth in love, God restores, Jesus heals, and the Holy Spirit restores us to the way that He made us to be.
Although my blog stretched longer than it should and my passion took over again, I pray that my words today will lead you to some honest reflection, prayer, and conversations as you engage in a process of being set free. I look forward to hearing your comments, and I thank you for journeying with me into God’s loving embrace.