Authenticity without integrity is lethal.

Every once in awhile a books comes along and brings words to all of the vague feelings and thoughts that have been rattling around in my head and just am not quite smart enough to put to intelligible words. Erwin McManus has been doing that for me lately. His book Uprising has been a daily slap in my face. It has been a daily opportunity for God to say to me…Wake up Todd. I find myself lulled into so many old and often times bad patterns of living…most of the time focused on what I think is right but also often based on what is best for me and not necessarily for those God has placed around me. This book has caused me to take a look inside myself and ask, ‘What is it that is driving me?’ We live in a society that is in your face. If you feel it...you should say it. If you want it...you should get it. Everything is to the extreme and everything is fueled by emotion...rational thought be condemned. I can be like that a lot. Fueled by what I want and what satisfies me. Erwin McManus says it like this in his book Uprising...

In recent times in our culture we have put an increasing value on authenticity and a decreasing focus on integrity…If to be authentic means to be who we really are or to express what we really feel, then in most cases I’m going to vote for hypocrisy. Our prisons are filled with men and women who acted on their feelings and impulses. If authenticity is about being true to your self, these individuals should be our models of inspiration…Our claim that we are committed to being authentic can actually be a façade for self-indulgence. If we’re not careful, authentic can be the new word for arrogance…This perspective frees us from any concern for the feelings of others…Authenticity can establish a self-righteousness that justifies abuse. Is it really OK to do something because you want to, to say something because you feel it? Authenticity without integrity is lethal. (Uprising: A Revolution of the Soul. Erwin McManus p. 66-67)

McManus than goes onto to describe what real authenticity is. It is similar to what John Eldredge writes when he talks about the new heart. Real authenticity is being who God created you to be. It is living out of our new heart and suppressing our old flesh. So yes, I want to live from the heart as Eldredge has inspired us to do but I also want to be very careful that I am living out of the new heart that God has placed in me and not just using my freedom as an excuse to indulge in old fashioned self-centeredness. God help me to be authentic. To be who You have created me to be. Help me to live out of the new heart you have placed in me and give me the wisdom to recognize when it is just my old selfish nature that is driving me.

tags: God Spirituality Books Christianity