Over the last several years I’ve adopted and continue to develop what I consider to be one of the greatest core values I’ve ever applied to my life – Keep It Real. It’s pretty self explanatory – just be real, and I’m working on it and expecting it from others more and more all the time.
The reason that is so important to me now is I’ve grown to realize that being fake and playing games is not God’s best for us or those around us. We’re supposed to share each others burdens and seek wisdom from others around us, but all too often we put on a front as though everything is ok in our life and we certainly don’t look to others as much as we should for advice (because that’s the same as admitting we don’t know everything). Then there’s my most favorite type of game-playing where status or authority are used to manipulate others in a way that is somehow supposed to provide some form of superiority or advantage… We all can only hope such ridiculousness is short lived and causes minimal pain before those of us who act this way realize where we’re wrong.
Many have heard me tell how Shawna and I weren’t keeping it real about how broke we were financially until it was a mess we couldn’t control. We would be really vague with our statements, saying things such as, “Y’all can pray for us because things are tight right now”, when the reality of the situation was we were BROKE! I believe God had us go through the humiliating experience of having foreclosure paperwork delivered to our house while all our church friends were there to completely break our pride.
We all do it. Someone asks, “How are you?”, and the response is “fine” or “great” or maybe something like “blessed” or everyone’s new Dave Ramsey favorite “better than I deserve”. I love Dave Ramsey but that phrase is often used as just another mask for what people really want to say, which is “my life sucks right now because of ____ and I need someone to pray for me and offer me advice”.
Don’t get me wrong I’m all for focusing on the positive and being thankful in all things and acknowledging that we truly are blessed just to have life, but sometimes, especially in the company of people we share life with, we SHOULD be putting our prideful disguises aside and just KEEP IT REAL!
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