What does it mean to be genuine and why is it so important as a Christian to be genuine? Honestly, this is something most all of us fight with at one point or another. A humans instinct will lead them too the age old word conforming. It’s really not that old. Seriously though we all want to be like someone else and we will pursue that like our life depends on it. We have a hard time being content with who God created us too be. Being genuinely who God made you to be is very hard often times, this is coming from me, I have had a relationship with Christ for quite a while now and I still am looking for the GENUINE ZACH. (By the way, he isn’t as far off as I am making it sound.) My life is what we call the opposite of rainbows and unicorns, what my life has been though since Christ came into my life is COMPLETE! Truthfully though, I have found myself in a place of weariness, I’m just tired. Not tired of life, but tired of always being like a light switch. Now what do I mean by that, well I am just plain tired of one moment being completely genuine and then the next deciding I would rather run after others. It’s draining and only overwhelms me more.
Hold on for a second because I am about to get a little, ok a lot, sentimental on you all here. The other day I was in the vehicle and the song “I Wanna Go Back” comes on and it struck me hard. I was reminded that maybe a part of my problem is I need to seek the basics of life and also seek the simple joys in life. I way too often forget about those moments where the simple words Jesus Loves Me gave me more happiness and joy than anything else. To add to the reminiscing I watched a movie that reminded me of my childhood and throughout the entire movie I did some extreme pondering. I want everyone to just take a moment and remember yourself as a child, wherever it was, no matter how easy or tough it was, and be honest with yourself, it was most certainly simpler than your life is now. I don’t claim to know what your life was like, but from what I have observed with so many people life isn’t getting easier as life moves forward, but it is getting harder. I tell you what I miss younger me. Why? It was the closest thing I remember to me being genuine. Part of the fact is that we had less worry as kids and so we loved who God made us to be. So what is it that shatters the genuineness in each of our lives? I believe it is this thing called growing up and a little hint of pride. I have looked at my life over the years and have seen a rapid decline in genuineness over each year. This is something that is very convicting and is helping me see everything differently. What about growing up seems to decrease the genuineness of who we are? If I am being completely honest, it is one thing, that one thing is the fact that each year we get older and as this happens more and more “weights” are thrown on us by this world. Quick Good News, God takes that weight and frees you from it, just trust Him. Currently I have been feeling as if the whole world is weighing down on my shoulders and it is so, so exhausting.
This next part is the absolute most important thing to hear and pursue. So, how do we as Christians first, be genuine and second show the world around us the importance of genuineness? It all begins with us understanding that as a Christ-follower, to become genuine or find that genuine self we must first take a step back and give all control to Christ and second stop seeking the word genuine and start seeking God. Our problem is we are trying to be genuine by our self and that is why we fail each and every time. We need Christ! Afterall, He did create you and I and if we can’t trust the One who knows us better than we know ourselves, then I don’t believe we can ever be truly genuine. However, if we seek the Lord above everything and run after the things He has in store for us, I truly believe genuineness will fall in place. Essentially, we need to hear that God created us and He created us in His Image. You want to hear the Good News to All of this? We don’t have to do this alone! I mean yeah, we all have the tendency to go at this alone, but oh boy, I have found that I can’t. I legit can’t. Every time I try I find myself flat on my face. Ok, go from here and stop seeking genuineness and seek Christ more and then genuineness will follow.