As I typed away on my laptop, reverberations of monkey sounds mingled with a little girl’s laughter, hovered in the background. It was “Daddy! Will you just be a man, please?!” that made me look up.
Somewhere in the midst of the pseudo-circus, my daughter had gotten tired of Daddy doing a great King Kong, Curious George, monkey something-or-other and requested authenticity. Stop acting like you’re not and just be what you are.
Aren’t we like that? We crave authenticity from others. Facades and veneers only go so far in relationships. It’s a funny thing but oftentimes, the closer we get to another person, the more we want them to be genuine while we’ll put up a wall of defense until we think it’s safe for us to honestly peek out. It’s the authenticity…the revelation of truth (if it’s good)…that will make us feel safe.
Jesus never lived a second of His life outside of truth. He never pretended to be something He was not. His Presence exposed the facade of the Pharisees and He openly called them super clean death containers; an appearance of purity and holiness on the outside but filthy, corrosive death on the inside. If Christ lives in us, and Jesus is the Truth (Jn.14:6), then He will want us to walk, speak, live, worship, and love in honesty at all times (Jn.4:24, Ep.4:15, Ex.20:16, Pro.12:22, etc).
Progress in our relationship with the Lord requires that we are honest with Him and others. It starts by making unashamed eye contact with Him in prayer and then continuing in honest, unhindered fellowship with Him continually. The ability to be completely transparent with a Savior that knows us thoroughly and loves us continually, is that truth Jesus speaks of that sets us free (Jn.8:32).We will never be free unless we walk in truth. Never.
Look at Jesus. Look at the cross. Look at the price He paid for our freedom from sin. All truth with dying love.
