So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:

“This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”

Matthew 6b-9

I am guilty.  When I read the words of Jesus to the Pharisees it is all too easy to focus on the hypocrisy of the religious leaders who do not practice what they preach.

Today, it is much easier to call out the failure of the pastor who preaches on selflessness and generosity but is later found to have been embezzling from the church for his own selfish desires. It is much, much easier to point the finger at “them” and how “they” have lived lives where they say all the right words, but their hearts are so very far from God.

But what if I take a close look at my life?  Choosing to be authentic is about making a personal choice to allow God’s Spirit to change me so that the gap between who I know God wants me to be to the person God has called me to be.

Authenticity means to be genuine, credible, real, and sincere and I think most of us do want to close the gap, but authenticity does not equal perfection.

I choose to be Authentic- by judging myself.

In Matthew 7: 4-5 Jesus said, “how can you say to your brother, Let me take the speck out of your eye, when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

Do you see the humor and the tragedy in the picture?  How ridiculous would I look with a 2×4 protruding from my own eye? How helpful can I be to someone else?

Let’s be the kind of people who see clearly, face our own failure first, and then let us live authentically. Embrace a fresh start.