Do Genuine, Real, Authentic People Still Exist?
Posted: Wednesday, June 29, 2011
by Carol Allen Anfinsen
AnfinsenArt
I don’t mean to knock interior designers, but I chuckled when I read this statement about one: “”She sees potential in the humblest of objects, as long as they have the right color and look. The books in her bookcases are from Goodwill, chosen for their blue covers and pennies-each price tags. (Rarely the reason I choose a good book).
I’m an artist, so this last suggestion appealed to me; but if you’re not? Would someone display a jar of brushes only because they looked good on a shelf and gave others the impression that the owner had artistic flare? Would someone display a group of glass bottles and jars they had no interest or experience with simply because of their color?
Not to brag, but I’ve read almost every book in my bookcases. I say “almost” because some of them are classics bound together under one cover. I always thought that books represented a person’s interests and ideas, and that what a person reads, what they are interested in says a lot about their character and passion.
Now I’m told, people buy flea market books to fill up the spaces in their personal libraries. The purpose: to give others the impression that they are learned and knowledgeable. Today, it’s all about “looks” and “impressions;” it’s seldom about what is real and authentic. We want people to think well of us, but we don’t want them to get too close or to know us too well.
The word “Authentic” means to be trustworthy; genuine, real, honest with others and with self, having a proven record, a clean conscience, being worthy of belief, conforming to fact or reality. It certainly doesn’t mean showing the world one face and wearing another when we are alone or in a different environment much like a chameleon.
Advertisers often make claims they can’t prove, and their statements are anything but authentic. Sometimes they place disclaimers in their ads to guard against law suits. That’s like saying they know up front they’re exaggerating and bending the truth, but they hope we won’t notice. People often do the same thing. They show the world a fake face, hoping to be liked, and forget who they really are.
Reminds me of the scripture from James 1:22-24: “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves…For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholds himself, and goes his way, and straightway forgets what manner of man he was.”
I couldn’t help but think of Anthony Weiner. His last statement to the press puzzled me. He said he owed a great deal of thanks to his parents for “teaching him the values he had lived by.” Ouch! Either the values were questionable in the first place, or the man ignored them. Sadly, he doesn’t have a clue about what he did wrong or about the values he supposedly represents. He has “forgotten what manner of man he was.”
We have all fallen into this trap at one time or another. We are not perfect. We can laugh and scoff with others at the Congressman’s failure, knowing full well that “there but for the grace of God go I.”
We need more compassion in our society; more tolerance for one another. When someone falls, instead of picking them up, we give them another kick in the teeth and send them sprawling.
The apostle James goes onto say: “If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is vain…Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” (James 1:26-27 KJV)
Unless we are “without sin” as Jesus declared, we must not “cast the first stone.” (John 8:7 KJV)
We are all sinners. The worst sin of all is when we try to hide our sin from ourselves or from God who is all-knowing, all-seeing and omnipotent. We show a mask of concealment to the world and continue lying to ourselves and others. When we get in over our head, bound up in the web of our own deceit, we fall. “And great is the fall thereof.”
When we are less than authentic, we not only cheat ourselves and others; we strip the joy out of living, the truth out of trusting, and the love out of giving. We strangle the light of Christ. We strip our character of decency and mar “the temple of God, of which we are:”
“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” (! Cor. 3:16-17 KJV)
Wow! Your body – my body is the temple of God. He dwells within each of us. He knows our thoughts, our intents, our good deeds and our bad.
The only way we can become genuine, authentic people again is to recognize the fact: that God dwells within us. We are the temple of his spirit. If we desecrate or foul our bodies through abuse, sin, drugs, alcohol, and immorality, we destroy God’s temple (we destroy ourselves). We invite devils and evil spirits to enter and take possession of our soul and to banish God from his rightful place within us. A sobering thought.
But a joyful promise has been given. We can cleanse our house, our temple through repentance and the grace of God. Jesus is not only our Lord and God. He is our Savior, our Redeemer, our physician and healer. If we turn our back on our sins, he promises to “remember them no more.” If we put our faith in him, we may rebuild our broken relationship and invite him into our hearts once again.
Being trustworthy is the key. If we put our trust in Jesus, he in like manner puts his trust in us. He swallows up our sin and restores our spiritual house. When we are true and authentic with God, we will be true and authentic to our family, our friends, and our neighbors. The transition is life-changing; world-changing!
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