IT IS WHAT IT IS AND IT AIN'T WHAT IT AIN'T
Are you suspicious of promotion? I'm not sure where we got the idea that the Lord is waiting for us to promote Him. There is a big difference between telling somebody something in a real context of joy and excitement and trying to fake joy and excitement, especially to obtain money or leverage. One is genuine and the other isn't. It has an ulterior motive.
One of the worst ways is playing to the media in order to sell yourself...uh...your ministry to the public. I come from the Bible Belt where billboard ads for church congregations and evangelistic ministries line the freeways. Each one usually has a slogan: "We are the Church In the Know, On the Go, Yo-ho-ho, Hidey-ho!" Why do we need to do that? The religion biz is rife with promotion and exaggerated advertising. But when you suggest to folks that your ministry is the greatest thing since Jesus walked the earth, no wonder people are disappointed when you show up. Then you have to pull an even bigger ruse by living under that religious mask.
What is wrong with being a normal person?
Everywhere I go, I always say to the Lord, "I'll know I'm on the right track if somebody here tells me, 'You're real.'" Transparency exposes the real truth that you are who you are, nothing more. It is the way to live when you are secure in the love of God. There is no longer any need to hide behind spin and clever exaggeration. You are normal just like everyone you are talking to. You have struggles like everyone else. The same joys, sorrows, fears and funny faux pas are as common to you as they are to everyone else. In fact, they are all points of identification with other folks you meet.
The trouble is that we somehow feel we need to hide our points of identification because we just feel awkward and unlovely. When you start to feel that way, remember that the guy in front of you is a normal person, too. One of the best ways to drop the wall between you is to reveal one of those points of identification. There is almost nothing about the way I live that I believe is a sacred secret--other than my passwords! Why should it be? I am just like you, peering out from a head that talks and a heart that feels.
Besides, if I share my struggles, maybe you will feel like there is no reason you need to hide, either. I am willing to become vulnerable to you in order to become friends with you, but better still to let you know that it's ok out here in the Light. If Jesus can love me, with my faux pas, He is likely to be able to love you, too.
The need to be known as something other than a normal person says that you think more highly of yourself than you ought. Have you ever met someone who over dramatizes themselves? Behind all that fluff is a scared little person who needs to come out of hiding and know the rest and peace of living in the light of God's love.
One of my favorite sayings is, "It is what it is, and it ain't what it ain't." There is no need to promote yourself as though you wear a halo. You are not a product and your "ministry" is not supposed to be, either. It's just you in there, ok? Your congregation is no better than anyone else's because it's full of regular people.
If you want to walk in the freedom of God's Kingdom, you will have to give up the fake you and just be who you are: a normal person who needs no other business card than the same one the Apostle Paul had, "I am who I am, by the grace of God." And the ego-bustin', verse, "I will not have anyone credit me with more than he sees in me or receives from me." That is just another way of saying, "It is what it is, and it ain't what it ain't!"
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