PCC Scroll: Editor's Corner

Here is my section:

The editing team met with Kris Fulsaas for our yearly retreat in August. As we talked about the next four issues, a reoccurring theme was becoming our authentic selves. So we selected an overarching theme of “Becoming the Authentic You” for the next four issues.

We thought the first step to becoming your authentic self would be to acknowledge where you are and to take stock in where you are.

In some ways, this acknowledgement can be counterintuitive. We are taught to manage our emotions from childhood. If someone asks us how we are doing, we are conditioned to answer, “Fine.” This is the rote answer even when things are not “fine.”

Then there is a point in time when we do acknowledge where we are, whether because we volunteer our true condition or because life has “found us out.” Then it begins. The ridicule, the jibes, and the judgment. It’s pretty interesting how people can criticize someone for “wearing a mask” but then constantly use the situation or circumstance to make the person whose mask is removed feel bad and inadequate about themselves.

Acknowledging where we are is hard. It is hard to admit certain things because we might not like how they sound. As a single person, it could be hard to acknowledge a feeling of loneliness in the same way it could be hard for a married person to acknowledge that they are unhappy in their marriage. These are not things we are supposed to feel or admit out loud.

But even if we try hard to create a false reality, life has a way of showing us where we are. Have you ever had one little thing set you over the edge? You could be at work and react strongly to something a colleague says or does. You could be driving along or at the grocery store and react strongly to someone cutting you off.

And these are the moments you might ask yourself, “Where did that come from”? In “Women of the Bible,” I wrote about Job’s wife. Her outburst of, “curse God and die” was probably a shock to herself. But we learn that it is the pressure of the fire that causes things that are deeply buried (or that we are in denial of) to come to the surface.

And the coming to the surface is a good thing. It allows us to know what areas we still need to grow in. So this quarter, I want to encourage you to take some time to figure out where you are. How you do this is up to you. Just do it. You may not be as far ahead as you thought, but you may not be as far behind as you thought.

Once you have this base, you can move forward to becoming the authentic person God designed you to be.