Engaging Authenticity

In the seven years I’ve been developing and leading Thrive, I’ve consistently noticed one thing.  People really want authenticity but once they discover it, they realize it is much more responsibility than they imagined.

Let’s face it.  Wouldn’t it be great if we could just be let out the real “me”, which usually means leaving behind the shackles that have literally crushed us in the process of life (or existence). And in many cases, it’s easy to assume that this freedom is like setting loose a kid in a candy store.  We often think authenticity means getting to do and say anything we want.

And sometimes freedom needs a little space to roam free.  Sometimes we need to stuff our faces with candy until we’re sick and realize that all that freedom isn’t so good in bunches.  Freedom needs something else.  It needs responsibility.

What I consistently noticed is that once we reach a place where we can truly speak our mind, saying whatever we want to who we want, and how we want doesn’t have the same appeal.  What we typically really want is something that looks like Jesus, someone who loves deeply and engages a rich array of relationships.  What we really want is to be fully human.  And that doesn’t mean total abject freedom, but what I would suggest is responsible freedom.

So the real weight of freedom is the responsibility that comes with it.  It’s exploring the freedom to be fully human?  Spouting our mouth off isn’t real freedom because it produces a remarkably destructive fruit.  But being honest about how we feel, what we’ve done, and what is destroying us, allows us to begin the process of restoring our hearts.

What we need to engage authenticity is a community that can consistently remind us that what we do does not define us.  God does.

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