Let me be totally transparent and honest: I do not like the trend where young people today wear their pajamas to work or to school. Yes, I am old, but in my opinion, pajamas were designed for the bedroom and not for public consumption. Plus, if your clothes are so uncomfortable that you feel the need to replace them with pajamas, the solution is not to restock your closet with nightwear, but to go out in your big boy and girl pants and purchase some comfortable clothes. There are thousands of options on display in all your local retail centers. Pajamas are for inside your own house (and that’s a concession; I would prefer to restrict pajama use to the bedroom in case someone drops by unexpectedly) and not for street use. And let’s all agree here: that is the way it has always been! Pajamas are for sleeping in; not for stepping out. And yet, if I was authentic here, I would have to admit that is not completely accurate (and if I was really authentic, I would admit that it is completely wrong). The fact is that what made pajamas so popular was that they could be worn out in public!  See, in the early 1900’s most everyone in Great Britain slept in a nightshirt. In other words, they slept in what they would say was their underwear. It was loose fitting, revealing and inappropriate for outside the house. But then, World War I broke out and the Germans began using Zeppelins for nighttime bombing raids all over Britain. This forced men and women to flee from their beds in the middle of the night and onto the streets wearing nothing but their scanties. And to add insult to injury, these poor underclad people would run out into the streets and run into their neighbors. Would you want your neighbors to see you in your undies? As a result, many of those who were not killed in the bombings, died of embarrassment. Magazines soon began advertising the solution: pajamas! They were warmer, more practical, and even stylish. And when you met your neighbors in the middle of the night, you could hold your head high, because everything from the head down would look neat and tidy. The magazine campaign was so successful that, by the end of the war, a third of all women in Britain were wearing pajamas to bed. And then the pajama craze caught on over here; and soon, everyone was wearing them. But again, to be completely authentic, that craze happened not because pajamas were great sleepwear, but because they looked great when you were out and about. Let’s be open and honest, there are times when being open and honest hurts your case.

And yet, honesty, transparency and authenticity are kind of a big deal in the Bible. Falsehood is prohibited in the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:16), in Jesus (Mt. 5:37) and in Paul (Col. 3:9).  Humility is extoled from cover to cover (from Proverbs 11:2 to James 4:10; from Psalm 25:9 to Colossians 3:10, from Isaiah 57:15 to 1 Peter 5:6) and James urges us to be completely authentic and transparent by confessing our sins to each other (James 5:16). Now, that is authenticity! So, today’s core value is really important; and yet, it is one that we often overlook.  However, if we want to follow Jesus, we will need to emphasize this virtue. We will need to be open and honest about our strengths and our weaknesses, our victories and our defeats. Here’s how we define what is means to be authentic at River’s Edge: 

  • I am more transparent, open and honest with the people around me. 
  • I have less secrets and struggles in my life that no one knows about.
  • I am actually dealing with the heart issues behind my sin, rather than just managing it or covering it up.
  •  I am less self-deceived about my sin, my fears, and my self-righteousness and how I relate to others.
  • While I continue to struggle to live up to my faith, I have an honest view of my shortcomings and where I need to grow and am not promoting a hypocritical stance to my neighbors.
  • I am growing in humility, in graciousness, in honesty and in truth-telling.

By now you know the process, so let’s begin. 

First, SURVEY and PRAY. 

Evaluate how you are doing in each of these six areas compared to last year and give yourself a numerical value for each item. If you have lost ground, give yourself a one. If you are stagnated, give yourself a two. If you are growing slowly, give yourself a three. If you are growing steadily, give yourself a four. And if you are discovering new breakthroughs, give yourself a five.

Pray that God would lead you through this process and reveal to you how you are doing in being authentic. Let God reinforce your strengths and show you your growth areas. Receive both with thanksgiving.  

Second, SELECT and DETECT.

Pick two of the six items for you to work on this week and write them down in a prominent place.  

Pray that God would give you opportunities to work on these two items this week.  

Then, as you go throughout your week, detect those opportunities that God has prepared for you. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Our privilege is to seek ways to put these items into practice, to be actively looking for every opportunity to apply these two skills. After all, God has put these open doors in our path for a reason—for us to find and do.  

Third, EMBODY and EMBRACE.

Here is the crucial moment. When we see these opportunities before us, we must step out in faith and embody these skills. We will have kept these two items in the foreground of our thinking all week. We have prayed about investing ourselves in these traits. We have been looking for any and all opportunities that God may have placed before us. We are anticipating that God will show up in a dramatic way when we encounter the opportunity. And so, when God opens that door, our job is to step through it. And as often as God opens that door, we are to step out by faith and into obedience.  Our calling is to put every item into practice as many times as there are doors. And when we do that, we should give thanks to God for working in us so that we can grow in grace.  

But our task is not just to embody these two principles, but to embrace a lifestyle of authenticity. So, seek ways to practice these two items, but also continue to seek to opportunities to put the six items from our previous sessions into action (of course, after you have chosen the one item from the two you were working on last week). We should now have one item to work on from each of the following categories:

Driven by grace
Loving the people God puts in our path
Sharing Christ with others
Called to grow in faith
Our calling is to give ourselves away.
And now, we are to value authenticity.

William Ward gives us a good four-point strategy. He wrote: “Four steps to achievement: Plan purposefully. Prepare prayerfully. Proceed positively. Pursue persistently.”  That’s not bad advice.  Let us make sure we follow it. 

Our calling is to be authentic: willing to share where we are struggling, willing to admit when we fail, willing to acknowledge our weaknesses and willing to testify to God’s grace. Our calling is to be humble and not to make more of ourselves than what is warranted. Our calling is to be an open book so that in all things we are open and transparent. Paul says it this way in 1 Thessalonians 2:3-4: “For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts.”

Let me be honest, now is the time to strive toward authenticity in all that we do.