Authenticity

I had a most interesting experience this past Sunday. A very well-meaning Christian lady came up to me and started talking about how lovely San Francisco was, and how much she loved visiting there. But then she immediately went on with how hard ministry must be in San Francisco and how everyone speaks their minds there and does so many crazy things, and how horrible that was. Then she ended with “you do know there’s a gay community there, right?”

I really didn’t know what to say to all of this. Yes there are a lot of people doing things and living in ways that much of the rest of the country would find to be crazy. So what? Those people, whether liberal, conservative, environmental, Buddhist, or homosexual, are not putting on a show (usually) for people, they are simply living what they believe to be true, and living it out in the open, but what’s wrong with being true to yourself?

Of course this is a scary idea for some Christians because much of American Christianity, I hate to say, involves putting on a show and a mask. Christianity is presented as “don’t you want people to think you’re like this?” without anyone actually becoming anything other than what they started as. Of course a city that does not need or wants masks, a city where people are willing to be authentic about what they believe and who they are, would be dangerous to this way of “Christian” living that relies on people pretending to be something they aren’t.

But I don’t find that concept scary at all, because I truly believe that Christ can and will change our lives if we let him. And if people are authentic in San Francisco, then wonderful, because that just means we have to be real as well. It means that perhaps like no other place in this nation Christians actually have to live what they preach instead of just assuming people want a disguise to hide their real face from the world and pretend everything is perfect.

I certainly hope that San Francisco can teach Christians all over the nation to be honest about what they believe and who they are instead of merely pretending to be who they are “supposed” to be. I believe Christ died to save us from ourselves and change us, but that change takes a lifetime and we shouldn’t hide our struggles when we have them, we shouldn’t pretend to have something we don’t, and we certainly shouldn’t put on a show only so more people will come through our doors.

We should live our lives, together, authentically, in service to God as best we know how. And if that makes me crazy too, then I suppose I’m glad we’re heading to San Francisco.