After reading Greg’s WANTED: AUTHENTICITY, I got a big lump in my throat.  I thought am I that transparent to Greg?  Could he see right through me?  I thought about all the people I know and respect and I realized that we all want to be known for something.  Some people say that they don’t want to be known.  Well I say yes, they want to be known – they want to be known as the guy that wants people to think they don’t care what other people thinks about them.  They want to known as the guy that is so secure that he doesn’t care what people thinks.

I don’t care who you are everybody wants to be known.  More importantly we want to be known for something.  That’s not bad, either.  Some of us want to be known for our good looks.  You may not want to admit that but if we see how much money we spend on our looks, our face, our hair, on fitness then this must be true. We want to known for our lifestyles, our accomplishments, and we drop these things in to conversations so people will know us for something.

The problem comes when there is duplicity or a gap between what I want to be known for and who I really am on the inside.  When there is a gap we all set up a façade that helps us mask the gap so that people will not really know who we are.  We might even lie to cover up that gap.  We do this because when I realize that I am not living up the image that I think I want to project then I put up a façade.  Our image management skills just are not working.  We find ourselves exaggerating a little bit.

Here lies the problem when the gap get big between whom we want to be known as and who we really are we create secrets.   Secrets are really bad, they are unhealthy, the people we care about the most are the very people we keep these secrets form.  All of us have some gaps between whom we want to project and whom we are inside.

To some extent, all of us spend our lives projecting an image that is contrary to which we really are on the inside. We hide behind illusions of what we want people to see about us. We all want to be known for something. Whether it’s for being successful or influential or something else we see as impressive, we spend a lot of time and energy projecting an image of ourselves that we think will gain us acceptance from others.

It’s often easier to lie about your marriage, your career, your finance, or your relationship with God than to deal with the messy reality of life. But living in the shadows can prevent us from experiencing the life-changing truth that Jesus came for the real you, not the fake you.  But this isn’t who we really are, and if we aren’t careful, we’ll end up going through life without being truly known by anyone for anything. And this will rob us of ever knowing true acceptance.

To Live Bold we must let our guards down and let others help us fill in the gaps of our lives through prayer and love. God won’t be surprised or shocked with the parts of your life that you’ve been trying to keeping in the shadows. So what are the issues that God wants to deal with in your life?    How do you fill in the gaps between the person you project to others and who you really are? Do you give partial information or stretch the truth or bring up your successes every chance you get?

I think that a group of people that you can tell your life story to will help you come out of the shadows and to lower the wall that is built around who you project and who you really are.  The gaps that we hide the secrets that we keep are the problems that burden our lives.  Christ took that burden away when he was nailed to the cross for each one of us.

The Church or Body of Christ is supposed to be the place where we can let our guards down and not be judged.  We attend to learn more about a personal relationship that is purpose driven.  The Church needs to be a place where people accept us exactly who we are and love us too much to leave us that way.  I have a small group of people that do that.  Milton, Al and Don are those people in my group that knows me and they care about me so much they don’t want to leave those gaps in my life.

We need to be known by somebody or some bodies to have to opportunity to be known for exactly who we are. I have two other friends that I can tell anything to; one is 79 years old are our lives seem to parallel in many ways. His mane is John James.  He keeps me accountable about going to the YMCA and exercising everyday.  The other one is a very good friend of mine Bill Deaton.  Bill was a world class runner in his late teens and early 20′s. Now he has MS  to watch his courage each day is very uplifting to me – he gives me strength in my faith.   We need to allow them to use God to help us become everything God wants us to be.  This may come as a real surprise that is exactly what the local church is suppose to be doing, I think.

Now, Lord, consider my gaps and enable me your servants to speak your word with great boldness.  Help my friends understand who I am even inside these gaps I have and let them help me bridge the gaps so that I can be all you want me to be.

- Steve

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