Life. Liberty. And the pursuit of God.

One of the most difficult things to create in the church is a sense of ‘realness’. People are so used to dressing up and acting like someone else during the week that it is hard not to put on a Sunday morning act as well. This posturing especially pervades the web. Here people can let you see the side of them that they want – literally. People can create personas and hide behind yet another wall that ultimately leads to isolation. When people hide behind walls long enough they even forget who they really are.

So this morning, while thinking about ‘real community’ I decided to take a couple snapshots of myself on my 1.3MP Web Cam. No fancy lighting, just an open window.

You will notice that I have classic Jeff Olive bed head. You could snow ski down my ‘distinguished nose’ and I have turned so the camera can see my odd shaped ear. Now that’s reality.

But you see that is only an outward reality. I Samuel 16:7 reads, “…The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

Now that would be an interesting world. What would you look like if all people could see was your heart (your true self) and not your outward appearance? What would you look like?