Authentic
people are willing to let go of
who they feel they should be in order to become who they are.
If we are willing to take the above truth by
the cudgels, to journey with God in the midst of brave honesty, we will taste
the freedom of authenticity.
We will no longer need to satisfy some
external criteria or please people to establish our worth. If we are willing to
take certain steps we will inevitably experience the blessing of the freedom of
authenticity.
How might we describe this freedom?
The freedom of authenticity is the blessing of
acceptance; of experiencing God’s unconditional acceptance so intrinsically
that we accept ourselves, also, without condition. Achieving this takes a lot
of work, but the irony is it should be very simple. It only takes a lot of work
because our ego resists the implicit flow of the Spirit as it is ushered in and
through our beings. The ego resists for the simple reason that, notwithstanding
our self-defensive pride, it is not natural for the ego to have faith in itself
– to trust, no less. The ego is a fabrication and it cannot stand by itself.
But, authenticity of the Spirit is the surpassing of the ego.
Authenticity is neither threatened by the ego nor
does it fight the ego.
Authenticity is a friend of reality, because
no reality can threaten it. Therefore, authenticity is free. See how
authenticity fears nothing. It is humbly confident.
The cost for achieving this halcyon state is
one of surrendering our modes of self-protection; to become vulnerable and,
indeed, wedded to the truth.
This, in sum, is the process of discipleship
under the Lord Jesus. There is no other way to authenticity. It must become the
most important thing or it will never happen.
So, for the price of surrendering one form of
‘freedom’ – to specify our exacting whims of selfishness – we receive the
bounteous freedom to live.
Nothing can touch this freedom. It is a
pinnacle spiritual state; a high peak of salubrious means; the very best of
life. When we have very little fear, yet we have a bountiful supply of joy, as
if it was welling up from the spring of life within us, we have what nobody but
God could give and we have something that we can’t possibly lose. But we do
need to adapt to being safely vulnerable so we are truthful first of all with
ourselves.
***
Authentic people are willing to let go of
who they feel they should be in order to become who they are.
© 2014 S. J. Wickham.
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