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“None of us is entirely what others perceive us to be.”

A thought by James MacDonald (2010-05-03) from his book, 10 Choices: A Proven Plan to Change Your Life Forever (Kindle Locations 3224-3225). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

Oh, I wish I could hide the fact that I am getting old.   I had someone say the other day that they thought I wasn’t really as old as I am so maybe this thought is true. 

James continues, “The problem is not in the unavoidable gap between others’ perceptions and our reality. The problem is when we ignore the gap. The danger comes when we widen the gap by promoting it. The number one criticism leveled against people of faith is that we are hypocritical, that we knowingly nourish a substantive separation between the life we project and the life we practice.” 

He goes on, “Interestingly, the complaint against hypocrisy is something God Himself has in common with pagans (a very short list of similarities). He, too, despises duplicity. He, too, is incensed by insincerity. Not so much the superficial, silly things that bother me— God hates soul fake-ness. He detests the gap in our lives between what we know to be true and how we’re living it. The biblical term for this kind of living is hypocrisy. God hates hypocrisy.”

James then says, “For that reason, so must we. The opposite of hypocrisy is authenticity, a quality so elusive you don’t get there by accident— you have to choose it.”


So I choose to be authentic.  How about you? 
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