Get Real

Dr. Jackie Chandler spoke this morning in service and entitled it "Get Real" and used a passage from the book of James as her text. James happens to be one of my favorite books because he just brings it, lays it on the line and tells it like it is. I love that. Things like, "If you know the good you should do and don't do it, you sin." BAM!! You know what you're suppose to do but decide not to...BAM...sin. There is no room for questions, no room for me to squirm some sort of lame justification as to why I did or didn't do something. Nope. I did or didn't do what I knew should or shouldn't be done and that is flat out, nasty, ugly, hurtful sin. Nothing like calling a spade a spade.

So as I was sitting there in service listening to her speak, I found myself jotting down some thoughts in response to some of the points she was making. One of the things she said had to do with the idea that real actions are not scripted, they are simply a part of who we are. The more I thought about this, the more it made sense to me.

If something is scripted, it seems much less real to me. You know those times when you call a customer support line and the voice on the other end (if you're lucky enough to talk to a human being) has a scripted conversation in front of him or her they simply read to you? It's just like that, you and I both know that we are not actually having a real conversation with this person but rather we are talking and they are simply reading to us. Or when Mormons knock at your door and you try to have an open and honest converstaion with them and start asking questions that don't fit into their scripted answers, they don't know what to do. It makes me wonder if it is real for them.

When we pretend to be something we're not we are following a script (written by someone or something else; signficant other, culture, etc.) that results in our conversations, relationships and goals being anything but real because we're not being real ourselves.