The Deal about Real.

     Much is said around fire stations about being "real". Around fire stations, people reminisce about the "Old Heads" saying things like "now so-and-so... he was a real firefighter.".  Being a real firefighter seems to make up for quite a few character flaws too. It's usually added to the end of a statement like this... " Did you hear _______( insert firefighter name) was arrested for __ ( insert heinous crime here)? I heard he drinks like a fish and kicks his dog too." (pause) "But he was a real firefighter." Maybe I exaggerate, but hey... Firefighters do that.

     How about Christianity? Is there a "Real" Christianity and a "Fake" Christianity? If there's a real thing, then the statement itself infers that there must be some question as to it's authenticity, and therefore THERE MUST BE something that looks similar, but isn't... "real".

     I think if you want to know if something is real, you go back to the source, and see how much it looks like "the source".  For example to see if someone is a real Christian maybe we take a look at what we know about Christ... We take it back to CHRIST... Christian means "like Christ" right?  You can't possibly get any more real than the person or thing you are impersonating, so what do we know about Him?

   Isaiah 53 speaks of Christ like this: "There is NO beauty that we should desire him."  He is "despised and rejected of men", a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. It states further that he had "No form or comeliness".  The prophet is so turned by his vision of "Christ" that he says "We hid our faces from him." We esteemed him as ".. stricken, smitten by GOD, and afflicted."

   Doesn't sound like the popular definition of Christianity. Popularly (Christianity that is)  doesn't look sweaty, and ugly, and tired, and hurt. It looks like an extra five in the offering or hugging the neck of someone you don't really like or dropping a can of creamed corn in the "food drive" bin.
  Seriously, you were NOT going to eat it anyway. 
   But all too often, that view of Christianity leaves people who aren't familiar with Christianity wondering: "Is He for real?"

     Maybe to find real, we have to look past the way things appear and see what really is. Maybe appearance, no matter how pleasant; is just appearance, and "real" means actions that really matter, a  sacrifice for another, and a resolute character that isn't easily shaken from "what is right."   Maybe it isn't nearly as pretty as we think it should be sometimes, but it's realness is unshakable; and  people who are looking to be real themselves.... well, they recognize it right away.

Today I thought about Jesus, and whether I am "real"... I sit here writing this; and my heart is troubled. I found two things to include in this blog, and I hope one of them touches you.
  

Excerpt from the velveteen rabbit:

(or how toys become real)

" What is REAL?" asked the rabbit one day,

when they were laying side by side near the nursery fender, before

Nana came to tidy up the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you, and a stick out handle?" 

"REAL isn't how you are made," said the skin horse. "It's a thing that happens to you.

When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you,

then you become real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the rabbit. "Sometimes," said the skin horse, for he was always truthful. "BUT when you are REAL, you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once?" he asked. " Like being wound up, or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the skin horse. "YOU BECOME. It takes a long time.

That's why it doesn't often happen to toys who break easily, or have sharp edges, or have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you become real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out. You become lose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are real, you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

"I suppose YOU are real?" said the rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the skin horse might be sensitive. But the skin horse only smiled.

"The Boy's uncle made me real, " He said. "That was a great many years ago; but once you are REAL, you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always."