Consistency

This weekend our pastor stood up on stage and confessed a number of sins to us. (If you're not a Mountain Lake Church attender this may seem odd but we're currently doing a series called Pastor Confessions so you can see how it fits...) Many of the things he said resonated with me but one in particular stood out. I'll call it the sin of inconsistency.

What Shawn was talking about was being different people in different environments. I think this is a key point at which most of us screw up. Are you the same person at work that you are at home? The same at home that you are at church? What about when you're out with "the guys"?

You might argue that it is important to adapt your behavior a bit based on the crowd you're in. I would challenge that with a very blunt "why?" Why do we need to alter the way we act based on who is in the room with us? Do we act more polite at church because we're embarrassed to be the rude jerk we are elsewhere? Are we rude with our buddies at the tractor pull because that's what everyone else is doing?

C'mon! What gives? Lets be honest for a minute... Lets confess just a little bit of truth about ourselves... Aren't we altering the way we behave just so that we'll fit in? Even if we're acting "counter-culture" to the group we're in isn't it just to fit in with the counter-culture group we're trying to impress?

Well? Am I right?

Maybe I am and maybe I'm not but f we're changing our personalities based on the environment the way we change shirts then are we really being true to ourselves? Are we really being true to who God made us to be? I'm pretty sure He didn't make us to be behavioral chameleons!

Now I am not encouraging you to be a rude jerk at church just because that's who you are with your buddies at the card game. Quite the opposite. If you're a rude jerk that's a character flaw and you probably need to work on that.

Rather, I am encouraging you towards a bit of self-reflection, introspection if you like, and some serious conversations with God about who you are and who He wants you to be. Why do you feel the need to change back and forth? Why can't you find one person that you like to be and stick with it?

Am I successfully doing this in my own life? Absolutely not. I'm just as identity challenged as the next person in line. But, like Shawn, I'm working on it and trying very hard to eliminate the sin of inconsistency. One of these days there will be exactly one of me. I look forward to meeting him.