The Servant's Quarters

I'm Real

One of the nicest things that I hear from time to time is, "I like Tim because he's real." The last time I heard this was indirectly from the new pastor at our church. He originally stated this to his wife and repeated it to my wife some time later. I've also heard it from other men from time to time.

I really, really like that. What does it mean? To me, it means that I'm honest about myself. I don't portray myself in some kind of hyper-pious light, pretending to be something I'm not. I let it all hang out. My conversation isn't limited to what I gleaned from my daily devotional yesterday or how perfect my children are or how my awesomely blessed and annointed my life is. When I'm down, I act down. When I'm up, I act up. My conversation is not limited to what's CC (Christianly Correct) at the moment. This is almost always a good thing. Sometimes, it's not. Sometimes I let it all hang out too much. Let's face it - there is a such thing as being TOO real.

I think that what it also means is that a lot people feel comfortable being real around me. They can be themselves. They don't have to have their Christian mask on when they're around me because I'm not looking for reasons to judge them. At least, on my best days, I'm not.

As I get back into this blogging experiment, this is how I want to run my web site. I want to be real. I'll talk about my faith and the role God plays in my life. I'll also talk about things that may not be strictly Christian in nature, like the book I'm reading now or the movie I saw last week. All of it will be through the eyes of a man who is saved, bought by the precious blood of Jesus.

But I'm going to be real. One thing about me is that I'm too honest to try to be anything else. (And on those occasions when I've tried, I haven't had a lot of success keeping the pretense going.)