A Word From the Author
A Word From the Author
I’ve called this book Be Authentic because in it we study the lives of three Bible characters who were authentic: Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. These men weren’t perfect, because nobody is, but they were authentic in their relationships to themselves, their peers, and their God.
When they were frightened, they admitted it. When they were caught scheming, they suffered for it and learned from the pain. When they succeeded, they shared the blessing with others. When they prayed, they were desperate; and when they confessed sin, they were broken. In short, they were authentic, real, believable, down-to-earth people. Flawed? Of course! Occasionally bad examples? Certainly! Blessed of God? Abundantly.
Our English word authentic comes from a Greek word that means “original as opposed to a copy.” Authentic people are people with direct, firsthand experience, people who make mistakes but don’t accept any mistake as final. They’re pioneers, not settlers, and they don’t blindly and blandly follow the crowd but prefer to follow that “different drummer” whom Henry David Thoreau wrote about in Walden.
Why study these three authentic men? Because we live in a world of pseudosaints and artificial heroes, many of whom are manufactured by the media and puffed by the promoters. The only thing some well-known Christians are known for is that they’re well known. Apart from that, there’s nothing distinctive about them. They belong to the herd.
God is looking for authentic people who will dare to have firsthand spiritual experiences in life and not settle for the secondhand imitations that are promised if you listen to the right seminars, watch the right videos, and attend the right meetings.
“When people are free to do as they please,” wrote Eric Hoffer, “they usually imitate each other.” For proof, check out any generation of teenagers, college students, or business leaders. Not so with authentic people: They struggle through life and let God make them the special individuals He planned for them to be. Eccentrics are painfully odd, and they repel us; individuals are creatively different, and they attract us.
And now we get acquainted with Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, three men who call us to be authentic.
—Warren W. Wiersbe