The discussion and threads on James last post is great. The discussion has moved towards questions around what it means to be/live/ an authentic christ like life.
I wonder if it possible to look at what this means for us. We have touched on issues of honesty, non dualist approachs, open relationships…. What would be the top three phrases, statements or questions that you would see as core. Or if you like – what would a rule of life look like to you/us that was centred on trying to live more christ like?
From the discussion so far I am leaning towards
The need to embrace our shadow, be open with others to understand ourselves lessen how far this shadow is cast, and to love and serve christ in the moment.
wow richard what a challenge, will take osme thinking this one, but here goes for a starter. I am hoping that we are allowed to change as we hear others and learn from ohters as well.
Did Jesus give us two to start with:
Love the LOrd your god with all your heart and MInd,
treat others as you yourself would want to be treated.
and a possible third:
be open to learn as well as impart words
Just initial thoughts
Am I allowed to start the backlash against the unauthentic use of the word authentic? 🙂
However, I do think that you (Richard) are using the word authentically. It’s just becoming a bit cliched, almost like a password to acceptance. Anyway, I’m sure that I’ll merrily continue to use it – as long as I don’t claim to be authentic.
So perhaps my first response to the challenge, Richard, is to say that I won’t claim to be authentic – that would be too much like beating my own drum! I’ll leave my authenticity for others to judge – and I’m sure it will, inevitably, be mixed. 🙁
Thanks Andy good to JC centred
Mark – Now the cat is out of the bag lets ban all christian cliches particularly when we are using them to cut corners and move to some blue sky thinking, with no holds barred!!!!!
Can’t we just ban banning? 🙂 I don’t like banning things, so let’s ban banning… hmmm…
mark, I would like to hear to hear your backlash agaisnt the unauthentic use of word authentic..
I was hoping to get away without actually doing the backlash bit – just talking about it. OK here goes. Here are some web links where people are claiming to be authentic (perhaps implicitly):
http://www.authenticmedia.co.uk/ – oh dear, I know these people!!!
http://www.authenticwalk.com/
http://www.authenticchurch.org/
That’ll do for now. I’ve got a bee in my bonnet about people claiming to be authentic. It sounds like the same mistake the church has always made – thinking that it has somehow made it, that it has achieved this desirable quality. Don’t get me wrong – being authentic is GREAT! It’s a bit like being humble – you don’t claim to be humble as that wouldn’t be humble!
If you are authentic you don’t describe yourself as authentic, because you know you aren’t always authentic and it wouldn’t be authentic to call yourself authentic – you’re just trying to be authentic, which is a much better state to be in than to think that you are authentic!
my rule of thumb (cliche!) would be:
no bullshit.
Ok, Mark, thanks for that. I agree it is impossible to be authentic all of the time.
I wonder if Jesus was? I think he probably was in terms of the way he spoke to the Syco – Phoenician women !!!
So we can move towards becoming authentic….. on the way….moving towards that state of being.
My take on what authentic is….
• Being who you are in the present moment / being right here, right now
• Not harbouring negative feelings towards people – as you tell it how it is in the present moment.
• Transparency
• Openness
• Congruent – Aware of your feelings, experience your feelings , communicate your feelings appropriately
The problem with being congruent is it is easy to lose friends and easy to make enemies. For me the starting place is learning to trust your feelings, your intuition.
James your take has got me thinking about the idea of light and truth as the common denominator. I wonder if often we see these as over arching christian doctrine type hings rather than living in the light and truth as much as possile in every moment. I guess this why I needed to add the word moment in my first attempt at a rule.