Stop Pretending You’re Ok

Authenticity is the core of Spirit. It is the very expression of courage, the willingness to live with the consequences of being true to what we actually believe. 

Conversely, society and religions choking, gasping, lifeless dread is that approval is given based merely on outward conformity. Authenticity is not required. Conformity is king.

Approval seeking loves to clothe itself in self-importance, in success, in position and ego, in industrious commitment and sincerity; ever hiding a suffocating truth: we are terrified of being unwanted.

But to truly be alive, life cannot be based merely upon correct ideas, accomplishments, fortitude, education, beauty and money, devotedness to causes, not even sacrifice is a guarantee of authenticity. 

To truly live, to be fully alive, we must be naked before God and humanity, exposed, vulnerable, needy, (gasp) trusting.

Ornate tombs filled only with bones are washed away only when we beat our breast and dare not lift our eyes. For genuine humility is the recognition of need; it is the submission of our deepest fears to the risk of judgement.

And in this Spirit filled authenticity of soul and bone, it is then that God enfolds His wounded child in compassion and power. Everlasting love meets finite dust, Spirit bows low enough to serve, life’s most paradoxical Truth.

In abandoning our desperate facade, in purging like vomit, the poison of control, we finally find living water; the real Truth, the actual Way, the source of Life.

Fear is replaced with peace. Dry bones come back to life. Naked shame is covered in robes of the light of Truth. And in this freedom, we find the vitality to give; authenticity has restored the circle of unending love.

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-Shayne Mason Vincent-

(Dedicated to a dear friend)