Quotes About Authenticity

Trust me, no one wants a perfect friend who can't offer a minute of transparency. We can get that on Pinterest. Our souls ache for real people in real homes with real kids and real lives. We may carefully curate online identities with well-chosen pictures and selective information, but doing so leaves us starving for something true. I seek only friends who bleed and sweat and laugh and cry. Don't fear your humanity; it is your best offering.

Would Jesus overindulge on garbage food while climbing out of a debt hole from buying things He couldn't afford to keep up with neighbors He couldn't impress? In so many ways I am the opposite of Jesus' lifestyle. This keeps me up at night. I can't have authentic communion with Him while mired in the trappings He begged me to avoid.

When we impose unrealistic expectations on ourselves, it's natural to force them on everyone else.

And even if someone is nasty, recognize the safe people who guard your story. They deserve to be in your stable and be trusted with your truth. As for the others? As Scott Stratten, author of UnMarketing says: "Don't try to win over the haters; you're not the jackass whisperer."2 (I will now abuse this phrase with reckless abandon.) That brings

We cannot carry the gospel to the poor and lowly while emulating the practices of the rich and powerful.

But God will span the universe to meet the believer who is real. He'd take an honest mess over a pretty lie any day.

The best I offer the world is the truth—my highest gift. What the world does with it is not up to me. I am not in charge of outcomes, opinions, assessments. I am not in the business of damage control. When I present a fabricated version of myself—the self who knows all, is ever certain, always steps strong—we all lose, because I cannot keep up with that lie and neither can you. Here is the truth: Sometimes life is complicated.

Truth is the front door to the life we've always wanted to build.

Lean honestly into every hard place, each tender spot, because truthfulness hurts for a minute but silence is the kill shot.

kids are absolutely capable of spiritual depth. Let's teach them to serve and care about the world beyond their Xboxes. And we have to lead with our lives, not just our lips, because kids can smell a fake.

academia has its place but can atrophy a real life. I need to see and smell and travel and put my arms around human beings. I cannot write a good story if I am not living one. Doctors put in the work to be good doctors. Teachers

If you learn to be true in childhood, you will bypass the devastating 'undoing' so many endure later. You won't have to reinvent, reimagine, or rediscover who you are in your twenties, when you are making the most important decisions of your life (a terrible time for an identity crisis).

If we could believe we are deeply connected in the fragile places, we could drop the games. When you tell me the truth about yourself, I no longer hide from you. You become safe for me. So guess what? You are now a recipient of my truth too. I am drawn to you. Your vulnerability makes a path for my own. Your truth-telling says to me, 'I will not despise, judge, or abandon you.' Ironically, it gives me the courage to be afraid, the strength to be weak.

Popularity is a terrible goal, because you have to lose yourself to find it.

Church must not be the goal of the gospel anymore. Church should not be the focus of our efforts or the banner we hold up to explain what we're about. Church should be what ends up happening as a natural response to people wanting to follow us, be with us, and be like us as we are following the way of Christ. (The Tangible Kingdom by Halt and Smay)

There is something so marvelous about women comfortable in their own skin.

I want a legacy dripping with human connection, up to its eyeballs in memories and adventures and weathered storms and gladness. I hope to leave a wake of victory, a life of full integrity. I want to say it all, risk it all, own it all.

Truth is the front door to the life we've always wanted to build. It

When the worship of God turns into a "worship experience," we have derailed as the body of Christ.

occurs, it means we can see through your pants. It's too

The only relief is being genuine at all times with all people, and if you think that is also hard, you are correct, ma'am. But at least it is honest. At least it is whole and true. At least you don't have to adjust the station according to the passengers.

The wilderness is where all the creatives and prophets and system-buckers and risk-takers have always lived, and it is stunningly vibrant. The walk out there is hard, but the authenticity out there is life.

My best advice is just to show up and be truthful. Be the kind of friend you are hoping for.

It's not how good we are that counts, but how truthful we are about how good we're not.