Authentic could be considered a buzzword these days. We want to know that the products we buy are the quality and kind that we desire to purchase. When you are paying top dollar, it is important to know whether the Rolex watch is real or fake. Is the leather in the purse or briefcase genuine or synthetic? While this kind of information is practical, when the word is used to describe your boss, your teacher, and even your friend, it takes on a new depth of importance. You want to know that the people who are most important in your life, who can influence your present and your future success, are trustworthy, predictable and real. You want to know that they what they say and do reflects who they really are so that there will be consistency and credibility in your relationship to them
What does it take to be authentic would you say? Looking at the old, old story in Genesis of Cain and Abel might give you some important clues. They each brought gifts to the Lord – one was from the harvest of his fields and the other was from his flock of lambs. One was accepted and one was rejected. Why? What did Abel do that Cain did not do? What did Abel understand that Cain missed out on? What important clues can be found in God’s conversation with Cain? What attitudes and actions help you to get a glimpse of the motives behind the gifts? Was God looking more for external performance or internal authenticity?
Simply said, it could be that long before Abraham obeyed God or Moses wrote the ten commandments, God had placed in the heart of man the desire to love Him and to offer up the best that we have of ourselves and our possessions to Him. The truth is that since sin came into the world, everyone has the choice to listen to the quiet call of God in humility or submission or to try to figure out life without Him. It may be the difference between those two brothers. What do you think?
