Actually

The world is full 

of fork-tongued Christians 

speaking beauty and grace 

from one side 

bitterness and strife  

from the other.  

We want to be seen as righteous 

or authentic 

or holy 

or transparent 

...you pick the word. 

And so we don the mask  

that communicates the image 

we wish to portray 

and we accent our speech 

to give Academy Award-winning performances. 

But even in Oscar's gleam 

our triumphant performances  

are still just acting,  

and not our actual selves.  

Unscripted lives  

lived off-stage  

in creation's transcendent drama, filled with  

vibrant hues and murky shadow, 

darkness and light, 

pleasure and pain, 

comfort and suffering, 

reveal the actual colors of our hearts.  

We speak of love, but act with disdain; 

We speak of forgiveness, but reject reconciliation; 

We speak of limitless grace, but withhold it from the undeserving; 

We speak of community, but exclude those who have actually failed us. 

'Tis risky to confront the bard, but I'm afraid 

all the world's not a stage 

and we are not merely players,  

but men and women  

of actual flesh and blood 

...and brokenness 

living in a Kingdom 

marred by the fall 

but being restored by 

its Creator and King. 

What true Kingdom living requires 

is not thespians,  

but actual citizens; 

not masked actors,  

but actual selves; 

not tongues that speak of love 

but actually loving people 

and especially those most disdainful; 

not tongues that speak of forgiveness 

but actually forgiving people 

as often as it takes 

and especially those who have hurt us most deeply; 

not tongues that speak of limitless grace 

but actually demonstrating grace 

not stingily, but effusively 

and especially to the most graceless; 

not tongues that speak of authentic community 

but actual community 

not excluding those sinners and Pharisees  

and especially those who most disappoint us. 

Actual life is not a screenplay 

resolving at two hours and ten, 

but enduring drama 

filled with comedy and tragedy, 

joy and hurt, 

confusion and disappointment. 

There will come a day  

when all tensions shall resolve 

and all trials are dismissed 

when we will actually live 

"happily ever after," 

but until that day 

let us seek to live  

not for the best actor award 

but with actual gospel genuineness 

spurring one another on  

to actual love 

and actual good deeds.