When nobody is around

It's amazing how things change when you know someone is watching.

You know - I might be perfectly willing to belt it out to my favorite songs when I am in the car by myself or what about when we dance, head bang and play air guitar when nobody is home? (or at least I hear that people do those sort of things... not me of course... just someone I know).

What I am getting at is that the presence of people around me motivate me in different ways. I put more thought behind things depending on who is listening (for example, students on Wednesday night are a lot more forgiving than adults on Sunday... evidenced in the amount of time spent in preparation... and the amount of butterflies)

Tonight, I was at my good friends "the Frames" when it came to my attention that more than my wife and I know about this little blog. Now all of a sudden I feel like I was dancing in the living room only to turn around and find out that my friends were watching.

As I thought about it, it led me to think a bit about integrity (also a topic that I was just talking with Merrill about tonight).

Here is the thing...

You can't separate integrity from authenticity.

Think about it... integrity, at its' core is my being the same person in front of people as I am when I am alone. For me - that is my working definition of integrity... I want to be the same person no matter where you run into me. I have tried my best in these years of ministry to not set myself on a pedestal - partially because that will cause people to think one particular way of me (also part of the reason I fight people calling me "pastor Jeremy")... the problem isn't the pedestal... the problem is when they really get to know me - it won't be long until they find out that I am just a guy who is on the same journey with God that they are... at times running... at times stumbling... at times being dragged kicking and screaming (more often the latter than the former).

So where does that leave us? Whether you run a church or a business or a family, be authentic. Let your friends see the same broken, growing person that your clients see. Let the kids see the same struggling, submitting person that your boss sees. The truth is that we all have a built in BS detector... in the end, we can all tell when we are faking it... and if we can't, then that junk has a way of surfacing over time.

I want to be the same person that I am on the stage as I am in conversation... but I will still try to shelter you from the Jeremy I am when I work on my car... nobody deserves that guy!