Let’s Get Real

There is just something satisfying about having the real thing.  I think any sane person, if and when given the option of having the real thing or a fake, would take the real thing.  The real thing is better quality, more valuable, and to be desired.  Women, given the choice between a real coach purse and a fake coach purse will take the real coach purse and I would have some serious questions about the woman who would not. Maybe you could care less about a coach purse, but if someone is going to give you one – take the real one!  We would rather have a smaller, but real, diamond ring than a great big fake cubic zirconium.  We would rather have an authentic antique than an expensive reproduction.  Real homemade ice cream made with real cream is way better than ice milk! We want the real deal!  We want the definition of real - genuine; not counterfeit, artificial, or imitation; authentic.

So what strange thing grips my mind when I think about myself?  I suddenly lapse into momentary insanity and I am much more likely to desire the fake.  Why do I suddenly think that my fake personality is superior to my real personality?   Why do I think my pretend life is somehow more interesting and better than my real life?  Why do I suddenly choose the fake over the real?  For some reason I am afraid that no one would want the real me.  I am afraid that the genuine me is not good enough and that a fake is somehow better.  Maybe it is because I am listening to the standard the world is giving me as real.  According to their standard, I should be taller, thinner, better educated, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.  So when I can’t come even close to that standard with my real life, I fake one.

In Matthew 16 Jesus asks Peter who people were saying He was and then He presses Peter as to who Peter says He is.  We all remember that Peter then makes the declaration that Jesus is the Son of God.  After Peter declares without hesitation who Jesus is, this is what Jesus says to Peter.

Matthew 16:18a (MSG) And now I’m going to tell you who you are, really are. You are Peter, a rock.

Once I declare Jesus as my Lord, then Jesus tells me who I really am.    According to Jesus the “real” me is loved, accepted, secure, beautiful, indispensable, and so much more. That battle between the fake sold by the world and the real offered by the Lord rages within each of us.  I am tired of settling for the fake and I hope you are too.  I am determined to be real.  The world is a master at marketing fake ID’s and selling us a cheap imitation of who we truly are when Jesus offers the genuine; not counterfeit, artificial, or imitation; authentic real deal. 

“Generally by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby.  But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”  The Velveteen Rabbit

Let’s not wait until our hair is gone, our eyes can’t see, we are loose in the joints and shabby.  Let’s start a movement of living the genuine; not counterfeit, artificial, or imitation; authentic real deal life that Jesus offers us today.  Let's show the world that loved, accepted, secure, beautiful, indispensable, and so much more is way better than anything the world has on the market.