Sincerity

I have begun and deleted, or finished and decided not to post at least a dozen writings in the past weeks. This one may survive my apparently rigorous screening process.

The word 'sincere' can be defined as being without hypocrisy or pretense; pure; unadulterated; not feigned or affected; genuine.

***I should offer up this disclaimer: ...this is not aimed toward any person in particular. This is a general observation I have made about my little world, as well as a challenge for my own behavior.***

Sincerity.. I was driving the other day.. wondering how I would define sincerity. I think I would use words like consistency.. and honesty.. a tendency to be unchanging, regardless of the various circumstances or contexts you may find yourself in.

Am I defining a different word? I don't think so. It seems like I'm just using different words to describe the same definition.

So people are called sincere, very sincere, extremely sincere, etc. For some reason, that reference always makes me very apprehensive and cautious. Well, I know the reason. It's because sincerity seems misused. Ugh.. I'm on the verge of deleting everything I've written.. How do I save these thoughts?? It seems sincerity and insincerity are so similar.

Please, let us be consistent. Let us be unwavering in our actions and words and behaviors. I think it was Bill Hybels who wrote a book titled, "Who you are when nobody's looking." (I'm not even going to google that for accuracy, so feel free to correct me.) In one of my first blogs I expressed a curious thought as to how the world would be if our worst discrepancies were written on our shirt for all to see. That's not what I'm promoting here, otherwise I would have no friends except for my all-forgiving Savior.

**side-thought inserted here**
It seems to be okay to have certain conversations with some people, and not with others. For instance, A friend of mine who was a follower of Christ said that is was okay to curse around him (this was years ago) because we were both Christians. Or, just this week a gentleman was leaving the DMV complaining about some fees he had to pay. I chimed in with some random complaint, but I tried to have a positive attitude about it. (hard to do when you're complaining) Put me in a different environment, speaking to a different person, and my speech would be disturbingly different. Should conversations be that much different between close friends and family or casual acquaintances? Of course, there would be a different level of openness, but what about your attitude or demeanor when you're talking? I don't feel like there should. Even in writing this post, I am taming my true frustrations with 'sincerity' down quite a bit. ... side-thought adjourned.

I'm suggesting.. honesty. Terrible acting. An elimination of false persona's. Maybe it would help to provide a few examples from my life:

Smiling. Sometimes I have a tendency to be infrequent in my smiling. I assure you, it is not because I am not happy. Well, it sometimes is, but smiling simply is not natural for my facial structure. My somewhat intimidating bearing has served me well in certain lines of work, but if I'm at church or with a group of friends I just seem really sullen and unhappy. (It's fun to hear people's first impressions of me. My lack of smiling is always mentioned.) Anyway, sometimes I think I should smile more, and be, or act, more cheerful. But I don't. Because it's not sincere. If I smile, I'm happy. And if I don't smile, I'm probably still very content, but I'm thinking about something.

One more example. Trafficking. I care about trafficking. But I sometimes wonder if I didn't just jump onto the recent social justice bandwagon just to be accepted and respected. By people. I've been praying lately that this IS a sincere concern on my heart, something that is from God, and not just an act.

Paul mentions a sincere faith in several of his letters. There's another issue for me, and I'm sure every other believer.

There is no rhythm or flow to this rambling, but I shall not worry.

I pray (sincerely) that we can be genuine in our interactions and relationships, that we won't be striving to impress people, but to please and glorify God.

SDG