authenticity.

authenticity has been at the forefront for me lately. The subject recently came up in a meeting i listened in on, and all the dialogue exchanged caused me to think pretty seriously about what authenticity means- how can i be more authentic in my spiritual/personal life? Basically, if I could boil down most of my discouragement/frustration in the past six months, it seems to have stemmed directly from a lack of authenticity- both in myself and in others.

Jesus was truly authentic. he said what he meant and meant what he said. He wept and cried out to God in his despair and pain. What do we do? we hide it. We hide our despair because it makes us weak and less than perfect. We believe that our sorrow and our tears are useless, that we aren't strong enough like Jesus was...we think that strength means something altogether different than what it is. I believe strength is found in authenticity. Our ability to be ourselves...angry, tired, confused, wounded- but also compassionate, kind, honest. Jesus was all these things at one point or another in his life. why do we have such a hard time bringing our humanity to God?

If love is to truly flow through us like living water, the source must be a purely authentic place within us. It must be from God.