Be Real

Romans 15:13

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)

“JUST BEING REAL.” These are the words we say whenever we want to separate ourselves from pie-in-the-sky thinking and confess the messiness of real-life experience. They reflect an admirable desire for authenticity, express an honest admission that life is not always as it should be, show a real vulnerability to the struggles we are facing, and open up conversations with others. They are the opposite of hypocrisy.

But does our desire to “just be real” actually reflect reality? In terms of what we are humanly experiencing, maybe so. But in terms of how God sees things—by definition, he is the realest reality—probably not. In fact, our authenticity about our own thoughts and feelings is very often an expression of discouragement or disappointment that shifts our eyes away from the reality of God’s Kingdom.

There’s no shame in experiencing or expressing disappointment. The issue is how we can get from point A to point B—from the false reality of our experience to the true reality of God’s Kingdom. No measure of faking it till we make it or putting on a good show will get us there. These are the hypocrisies we need to avoid. No, the only path into the greater reality of hope and joy and confidence is to experience inner transformation, a specialty of the Spirit sent by the God of all hope. It’s a process, to be sure, and not always a comfortable one. But it’s authentic. Ultimately, we should be able to tell people that our hope, joy, and peace—our experience of God’s shalom—is the greatest truth we have experienced and a testimony of how he redeems and restores the human heart. Only then will “just being real” mean something entirely refreshing and new.

{Lord, you already know my struggles and how I’ve shared them openly with others. But don’t leave me in them; use them to transform me and demonstrate your transforming power to those who need it. Bring me into the ultimate realities of hope and fulfillment. Amen.