Be Real

I stumbled across a song by Butterfly Boucher thanks to good old iTunes. I bought the song cause of the sound and because the lyrics posed an interesting question that is rattling around in my brain today.

"It's scary to be fragile"

As a youth pastor, I evaluate my success in ministry based on two criteria: 1. Love for God and 2. Love for others. Looking at the life of Jesus, He focused on two things when building into His team, the disciples: 1. Environment and 2. Experience.

Worded a different way, as a youth pastor I need to be focused and evaluating success in ministry based upon what sort of environments and experiences I help to foster and create for students.

Now take into account the lyric from this song, "It's scray to be fragile." There is a lot of truth in this statement. Being real is scary. It's scary because of the environments and experiences we've been exposed to. When we "put ourselves out there" and we didn't receive an agreeable response to our real-ness, then we shy away from pursuing authenticity and getting real again.

I know that I've felt this level of uncertainty and fear before. I've hid from opportunities to be real with others out of fear and worry that I may not be accepted, loved or cared for. But then there are also times when I have been real in my approach to life that have been positive experiences as well...marrying my wife would be one of them.

My thought for today is simply this: Be real...lead the charge in the pursuit of authenticity and be the change you wish to see in the world. Create environments and experiences that foster depth, truth, life and encouragement for those around you. Accept others for who they are in Christ and be intentional about demonstrating your love for God and for others in a real and authentic way.

This is the only way that I see of how we can burst out from under the oppression of fear and run into the freedom of living life to the full...the way Jesus intended!!