A brief homily on being authentic:
“The way to share about your faith (whatever you actually believe in), or what keeps you spiritually centered, is to tell your story. Be authentic. Be real. Be yourself, and tell the truth about how it’s been. The reality is that this way, breaks through religion; of course, we don’t have to be embarrassed by moving in the Spirit of the Jewish God, but we need to be real about it. We need to be real about our own experience of it. Then that integration happens between our real lives, our expression and our spirituality-our “testimony”, or outer expression, becomes authentic! And that is contagious, and a clearer reflection of whoever we are serving. Get out of the way, like John the Baptist, by being real. Authenticity creates a true platform for sharing about deeper things. When we are being ourselves, the poem of who we are comes out, and attracts people to whatever, or Whomever, we are moving in, regardless of where we are on our journeys. Authentic identity is a form of evangelism. We are all in the end stories of Grace, but not all of us are being honest about it. Things become beautiful when they are being themselves.” (an interesting and challenging sermon i heard this week)