Let’s Be Real, Let’s Be Beautiful

To truly experience and spread the love Christ has for us, I’ve found that we’ve got to be transparent; And that means we’ve got to be real.

And ya know what? That’s hard.. and that’s scary. To be real with ourselves and with others means no hiding behind our protective walls of false innocence. That freaks most of us out! We really don’t want people to know where we’ve messed up or what we struggle with on a regular basis. It seems we’d rather develop a front and keep up a performance in public. And that’s ridiculous! We know people aren’t perfect.. we’re people too, so why do we even think for a second that we are expected to be perfect? If anyone has the right to expect perfection from us it’s God, and we know that even He doesn’t.

This is exactly why Jesus came to seek and save us in the first place: Because He knows just as well as us (better than us, actually) how truly imperfect we are. Isn’t it amazing how He loves us despite that?!

This truth should cause us to stop foolishly worrying about what others think of us and in turn be truly transparent with ourselves and with others. We know what God thinks of us and because of the love He has for us, it doesn’t have to be as hard as we make it to do so.

Beyond this we’ve got to allow those around us to be real as well. And that can be just as hard and scary at times. Sometimes we just don’t want to hear about other people’s problems, which is just horrible, but it can be true. We can also fall prey to wanting others to put on a mask of perfection in order to keep those around us from falling into similar temptations. And that’s a major problem, to make others keep their secrets under wraps that is. People can’t really heal and grow without sharing their struggles with others. Plus, trying to protect others who might hear doesn’t really help them either because life is real and we gotta face the fact that stuff happens. It’s really hard to grow without hearing about the potential dangers in life.

So again, let’s be real, and let’s let other people be real.

There are really only two areas where it’s difficult for us to be real, and to allow others to be real:

1. The trials and hardships we face that are emotional and physical like disease, relational problems, and the loss of loved ones.
2. The temptations and sins we are spiritually prone to struggle with on a daily basis.

Both of these categories can be hard to be transparent about. Granted, the first one can be a little easier to express than the latter because when being real in that area you’re really just sharing how you have grown through the trials. In the second category you’re putting yourself in a much more vulnerable position where you can be judged and condemned by those whose heart is in the wrong place. But, ya know, we can’t let that stop us because the Christian faith is not about a performance, but instead giving into God and helping others grow no matter how uncomfortable that can make us.

(Sidenote: When talking about trials we need to avoid doing it with an air of complaining or arrogance because we went through it. And when talking about temptations avoid being nonchalant about sin. These attitudes can help no one.)

Obviously there is some fear involved with bringing yourself to a place of transparency. It really is a big deal to allow yourself to be so vulnerable. And we can’t do it on our own. The overwhelming and relentless love of Christ is the only thing that can enable us to be truly transparent.

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment. He who fears has not been made perfect in love.” – 1 John 4:18

The love of the Lord is absolutely perfect and because he dwells in us we possess this perfect love and are capable of loving in the same way! So for us to be real, it means being completely captivated with the love of Jesus.

To really help us be real we just need to look at Jesus, He was the most real person to ever live. I can prove it to you… John 11:35 says, “Jesus wept.” The Bible only speaks of Jesus doing this once, in the chapter of Lazarus’ death and later resurrection induced by Jesus. He wept in mourning for the loss of His friend even though He knew what He would soon do. As the Son of God, He could’ve easily not concerned Himself with such things, but He used real emotions and used them in the most perfect, caring way. Even though God’s Word only tells us of Him literally doing this once, there are other passages that point to Him doing this. And I wouldn’t doubt for a second that He cried in regard to his other friends and the lost.

What I want you to get out of this is that the God of the universe weeps over you, your trials, and your temptations. I know this because He considers each and everyone of us as His beloved children and friends. So in your quest to be transparent, understand that the Savior of the world is your perfect example of being real.

Finally, the world wants real people, the world needs real people. It’s the only thing that can really impact them when it comes to the Gospel. They aren’t impressed with self-righteousness and keeping all the rules, they are impressed with love and the whole idea of being real. To them this is the only thing that’s beautiful, and really it is the only thing that’s beautiful. So, to be real means to be beautiful. It’s what everyone is looking for. It’s something all the Messiah’s followers are called to do and be.

We’ve gotta be willing to tell our story, we’ve gotta be willing to share our trials, we’ve gotta be willing to disclose our temptations. And we’ve got to allow others to do the same. We can even encourage others to tell their story. It’s time to break down our walls we hide behind so we can break down even bigger walls!