transparency

A few posts back I shared that I had made a decision to just be "real" as a Pastor. I want to continue to look at this a little more today.

I think all of us have a built-in radar that allows us to detect when someone is not being genuine.
I once greeted someone and asked him, "How are things going?' He answered by saying, "if things were any better, I'd be twins"! That answer would be fine IF things were going good in his life, but what he didn't know was that I was aware that things in his life were going very poorly. What a shame that he felt the need to try to cover things up. Wouldn't it have been a lot better if he would have felt comfortable enough to say, "Well actually things are a little tough right now. I could sure use some prayer".

I'm not coming down on that guy, because I've done the same thing at times.

My question is why do we feel the need to put on some sort of disguise, pretending to be someone we're not?, Or putting on a fake smile to pretend to be happy, when we're not? Are we that insecure?
Here is the biggest key for us to understand, that will set us free from these insecurities: NO MATTER HOW YOU VIEW YOURSELF OR HOW OTHERS VIEW YOU---GOD VIEWS YOU AS A MASTERPIECE! ("For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago". Eph 2:10)
When we truly come to grips with who we are in Christ, our personal insecurities melt away.

My friend Jeff Kapusta recently blogged about Pastors being real. (Great post Jeff!)

Another friend, Troy Gramling is just finishing a message series called MyNakedpastor.com where Troy let video cameras follow him around 24 hours a day for a month and it was being shown live across the internet to let people get a glimpse into the life of a Pastor. (just for the record he didn't get naked in front of the cameras), he was saying that emotionally most of us are afraid of getting naked.

Why not let go of your insecurities today and let God show you how valuable you really are?