It doesn’t matter what our faith looks like; it matters what it is.
Have you ever been to Madame Tussauds? It’s a wax museum. It’s where all bees go to retire. There are several of these museums around the world, and I’ve been to them all. Sometimes I ask the person selling tickets where I can find a candlewick and some matches just to see the response. But I’m not fascinated with the wax people. I love looking at the real people who go to wax museums to look at wax people. Do it sometime. Honest. It’s worth the price of admission.
Everyone’s there: Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Elvis. It’s like a reunion of the dead. If I were in charge of the wax museum, I’d have an exhibit of a wax person with way too much body hair, waxing themselves. Nobody would get it, of course, but I’d still think it was pretty funny.
I was in Washington, DC, awhile back for some meetings. I had on a black suit, a trench coat, and my best clip-on tie. With my white hair and whiskers, I looked just like a senator. I had the kids with me and could tell they were a little bored, so I asked them, “Hey, do you want to go to the wax museum?” They’d never gone, so they jumped at the chance. We got to Madame Tussauds and ran downstairs to where all the wax people were. When we got there, just for fun, I struck a pose between the third and fourth wax guys on display. I whispered to the kids, “Watch this.” They all shook their heads, saying, “Dad, would you please act your age?” I put my finger to my lips and whispered, “I am.”
I could hear a couple of people coming, so I froze. Two little old ladies were heading my way. When they came around the corner, they walked up to me and got uncomfortably close to my face. One of the elderly women licked her finger and touched my cheek. I thought I might hurl, but I didn’t. The other reached out her hand and pulled on my whiskers with her pinched fingers. They looked at each other in amazement and then back at me again and said, “He looks so real.”
Because I’m a lawyer, I knew I couldn’t move. I was almost certain one, or both of them, would have strokes and someone would end up owning my house. So I froze and took it like a wax man. After a long minute or two, they moved on to the next wax guy and began pinching his face and pulling on his clothing. When they were a safe distance away, I caught the corner of their eyes as they looked back. I took a step forward, waved at them, and mouthed the words, “I’m not wax.” One of the ladies dropped her handbag and froze. Meanwhile, Lindsey, Richard, and Adam were bolting for the exit to hail a cab for a fast getaway.
Do you know what I realized about myself that day? I’m a really good poser. It’s probably why I’m a pretty good lawyer. You see, I know how to fake it really well. You probably do too. Most of us have been posers at one time or another, if we’re honest. People who are becoming love stop faking it about who they are and where they are in their lives and their faith.
When I was in high school, there was a trick if someone who was eighteen wanted to pass for someone who was twenty-one. If their birth year ended with a 9, they could take their driver’s license, razorblade out the 9, flip it over, and glue it back in as a 6. This inversion made it appear on the license that they were three years older than they were. It was a felony and it could land them in jail, but they could instantly gain three years in age.
Licenses are a little more sophisticated now than they were then. Still, a lot of people are cutting out parts of their life, flipping them over, and pretending to be someone they aren’t yet. We all do it to greater or lesser degrees. It’s not for malicious reasons. We all have this idea of who we want to be, so while we’re getting there, it’s easy to pretend we’re older or smarter or even believe in God more than we actually do. The longer we’ve been doing it, the better we get at it, or so it seems. God, of course, sees right through it, and quite often the people around us do too. The sad fact is, we’re usually the only ones getting fooled.
We get so good at fooling other people and reading our own news clippings about who we are that we end up believing we’ve arrived at a place we haven’t yet. It’s why some of us buy expensive cars or boats or homes we can’t really afford. We’ve fooled ourselves into thinking we can afford it now, when we won’t actually be able to afford it for a few years. It’s why we take leadership positions or get on stages when we’re still working out the basics in our own faith. It’s like we’ve flipped the 9 and made it a 6. But God sees right through the things we forge in our lives.
There was a guy and his wife in the Bible named Ananias and Sapphira who sold some property. They lived in a community where everyone’s needs were being met and they wanted to do their part, so they sold their land. When I first read this story, I was blown away at the generosity of these two. I haven’t met anyone who sold a home or a plot of land and dropped off the money at the local church or community center. A lawnmower, a couple of used books, an outdated laptop, or an old mattress, maybe, but all the money from selling their land? I’ve never heard of anything even close.
There’s a hill behind our house in San Diego. Sweet Maria tells me to hike it to get some exercise. I’m good for about three round trips up and down before I’m worn out. One week, I wanted to impress her and prove what great shape I was in. I told her all week how I was going to hike the hill five times on Saturday. I told her on Monday and Tuesday, “I’m going up that hill five times next weekend!” I told her the same thing on Wednesday and Thursday: “I’m going up that hill five times next weekend.” I told her the same thing on Friday: “I’m going up that hill five times!” Saturday morning finally came. I laced up my shoes and headed for the hill. When I got back, Sweet Maria asked me how many times I’d gone up the hill. I puffed out my chest and with five outstretched fingers said in my most manly voice, “I went up that hill five times!”
Then I thought about it for a second.
I’d only gone up the hill three times, just like always.
I wasn’t trying to fib or mislead anyone. What happened was simply this: I’d told myself I was going to go up that hill five times on Saturday so many times I actually believed I’d done it.
The same thing happens in our faith. We hope for good things to happen to people in need. We hope it and we hope it and we hope it some more. When we do, our brain can fool us into thinking we’re actually helping. But hoping isn’t helping. Hoping is just hoping. Don’t be fooled. It’s easy to do.
Ananias and Sapphira loved God a lot. They sold their land and gave all the money away—well, almost all of it. I bet on Monday and Tuesday Ananias told God and everyone around him he was going to sell his land and give it all away. He probably said the same thing on Wednesday and Thursday: “I’m giving it all away.” He probably told everybody on Friday the same thing again: “I’m giving it all away.” On Saturday morning, he came to his friends and they asked how much was there. Ananias proudly said, “All of it!” You might remember how the story went. He had kept some of the money for himself and his wife. It was an entirely reasonable thing to do. I do it all the time. It didn’t go well for them.
Ananias was posing as someone he wasn’t yet, and he and his wife both dropped dead. It sounds more than a little harsh. We throw a couple of one-dollar bills wrapped in a twenty in the offering plate and feel great. We donate a little to a charity and get a wristband or throw a few bucks at a Kickstarter campaign and get an album or a hoodie. We feel terrific. Even if Ananias and Sapphira gave away only a quarter of the money they got from selling their land, I bet they would have bested my most generous year. So why did they drop dead?
I don’t think anyone knows for sure. My best guess, though, is God saw they were posing and wasn’t happy about it. They were saying to everyone around them that they were at a place they hadn’t arrived at yet. They probably wanted to be the people who would give it all away. They weren’t trying to fool everyone. They had probably said what they hoped to do so often they actually thought they had done it. The fact was, they just weren’t there yet. Me neither. It’s the problem posers like all of us have.
Chilling words followed from a man named Peter, whom they had given the money to— “You have not lied just to human beings but to God.” We all do that a lot more than we’d like to admit. Every time we try to pass ourselves off in front of people like we’re at a different place than we really are, we end up back at the wax museum.
I don’t think God’s in the business of striking people dead who misrepresent where they are with Him. If He were, who would be left standing? The story about Ananias lets us know, however, just how strongly God feels about us keeping it real and transparent and honest about where we actually are, rather than faking it and pretending we’re someone we only hope to be someday. I think God can use us wherever we are. The Bible is full of stories of people who messed up. It seems like failure in the world was a requirement for success with God. People who are becoming love keep it real about who they are right now, while living in constant anticipation about who God’s helping them become.
When they make movies in Hollywood, the director will have an assistant with a black-and-white clapperboard stand in front of the actor and make a noise when the cameras start rolling. This gives a marker for the moviemaker to sync the audio and video later. We’ve all seen bad movies where the audio track isn’t quite synced up with the video track. What you hear isn’t aligned with what you see people saying. It’s usually not a big difference, but it can become a big distraction.
My son Richard is an amazingly talented and creative guy. He makes videos like a boss and was helping me with one of mine. We didn’t have a clapperboard when we were filming, so Richard just had me clap my hands to make the marker for syncing up the audio and video. These days, when I’m speaking to a group of people and find myself talking about the man I wish I was, rather than the person I am right now, I clap my hands to remind myself to sync up what I’m saying with what I’m doing.
We should all have beautiful ambitions for our lives and who we might become, but we also need to sync it up so we’re not fooled into believing we’ve already arrived at a place in our faith we’ve only been thinking about going to someday.
Have you noticed when people take photographs of each other, the person taking the picture is usually smiling too? Check it out for yourself. I think God does the same thing when He sees us. He’s not trying to bust us when we fail or when we act like posers. He doesn’t hang photographs of our mess-ups on the refrigerator. God isn’t in the business of punishing us with reminders; instead, He pursues us with love. He doesn’t grimace at our failures; He delights in our attempts.
Here’s the deal: when we act like someone we’re not, it’s often because we’re not happy with who we are. We might think we need other people’s permission or love or approval before we can live our lives and pursue our beautiful ambitions. It’s both good and bad. It’s good if it causes us to want to pursue Jesus’ love and approval more. But it’s bad if we miss out on who God uniquely made us to be so we can be who someone else thinks we should be. God has never looked in your mirror or mine and wished He saw someone else.
Every time we fake it and aren’t authentic, we make God’s love for us look fake too. He doesn’t have a wax figure of us somewhere that looks smarter or taller or shorter or skinnier or more ripped than us. He doesn’t want us to just look different. He wants us to become love. It won’t be because we talked about who we wished we were over and over again or because we gave ourselves enough positive affirmations in the mirror. Only love has the power to get us there.
God isn’t shaking His head in disapproval as we make our way toward Him. He’s got His arms outstretched, welcoming us home to Him with love. I bet if we could hear what He’s thinking, we’d hear Him whispering, “You’ve got this. Just keep moving toward Me.”
Do you want to do something amazing for God? Trade the appearance of being close to God for the power of actually being close to God. Quit talking a big game and go live a big faith. One of Jesus’ friends said if we want to get it right, we need to live a life worthy of the calling we’ve received. The call is to love God and the people around us while we live into the most authentic version of ourselves. We weren’t just an idea God hoped would work out someday. We were one of His most creative expressions of love, ever.
Lose the wax. Don’t fake it; sync it up. Go be you.