We recently posted the values of the nameless church. The one that I am constantly stuck on is authenticity . Something about that makes me feel alive and more whole. I guess it might have something to do with being very disillusioned by a the false world around me. I remember as a teenager and younger seeing the world with bright eyes, eyes that were amazed by what I saw, eyes that learned at every turn, that experienced the fullness of the stimuli before them. Everything was naively exciting.
But for some reason, at some point, the illusions came out of the closet. Maybe it is a little like that show that revealed all the sacred secrets of our Las Vegas illusionists. Life started to uncover a series of lies and misconceptions. I started seeing the lives of the muscians and actors that I loved being pretty ugly, I saw the creative business world not being what I thought it was, I realized that parts of the Christianity that grew up with were more concerned with what a political party stood and what Jesus Christ died for. There are so many other men that I found behind curtains, all pretending to be great Wizards.
I guess in all that I’ve learned a couple of things:
- That the world cares more about perceptions than truth
- That the world has a difficulty telling perceptions from truth
- That for the sake of popularity, prestige, and power (at whatever level) we all learn how to be illusionists.
- Appreances have to be maintained for “success” (how many times have NOT cleaned up your house before company arrives, so they think that your abode is always ship-shape?)
- Authenticity is not valued by the powers that be.
However, while these are more sober, difficult realizations, something good is coming out of these: I am not alone. I see a world where we are not satisfied with the lies of the advertising, entertainment, or religious industries. We have too much information, we can see through them. We are beginning to miss what it means to be real. We want to “Keep it Real.” While we may live inauthentically, and be powdered with lies, we feel deeply and long for truth.
We don’t find truth in our all consuming dept where we have purchased our illusions to keep up with the Joneses. We don’t see all the truth in our reality television, although that is the closest thing that we have. We constantly see half-truth, and the occasional out-right lies in our news media. We may have difficulty finding truth in a big screen, production driven Christiainty that we see our parents flocking to. But, we might start to see truth in something better. I’m reminded that Jesus is the truth. And that is a more radical truth and that the objective 1+1=2.
The truth that Jesus offers is deeper than a rational objectivity. It is a truth that sets captives free, is good news to the poor, gives peace that passes understanding, light in the darkness.
There is something different about that truth, something authentic.
