Tag Archives: Authenticity

Devotional

Forget the Fake

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Read Ecclesiastes 2:4-11

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
Next the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. “I will give it all to you,” he said, “if you will kneel down and worship me.” “Get out of here, Satan,” Jesus told him. “For the Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’” (Matthew 4:8–10 NLT)

Crowds of people walk down Main Street, U.S.A. at a Disney park, framed by colorful buildings and a popcorn cart, with Cinderella Castle towering in the background. A child in the foreground eats a Mickey Mouse ice cream bar. The scene is bright, cheerful, and tightly composed, capturing the immersive theme park atmosphere.
Image: AI-generated using DALL·E (OpenAI) and modified by the author. Used with the devotional “Forget the Fake” at Life-Giving Water Devotions.

I was walking through Walt Disney World—shoulder to shoulder with families in matching shirts, toddlers gripping melting Mickey bars, and cast members trained to smile like their jobs depended on it. Every corner had a soundtrack. Every smile, every gesture, every blade of grass seemed perfectly in place. The grass along the walkways looked too green to be real—and in many places, it wasn’t. Astroturf blended almost seamlessly with manicured lawns, trimmed to the millimeter. The air smelled like popcorn, cotton candy, and sunscreen. Hot dogs sizzled behind shiny glass counters. A trolley clanged gently by, carrying brightly dressed folks singing and dancing their way down the street, inviting all of us to believe we’d stepped into something better than reality.

It felt like walking through nostalgia—curated, choreographed, and utterly convincing. I found myself humming, “I’m walkin’ right down the middle of Main Street, U.S.A.” Then—full stop.

Is this what Main Street U.S.A. really looks like? Smells like? Sounds like?

That question cut deeper than I expected. The illusion cracked. It was too American. Disney had really bought into—or maybe sold—the American Dream. Not from a place of privilege, but from the deeply rooted delusion that luck doesn’t matter. This was one man’s kingdom. His dream. His rules. His version of magic. And beneath the polished surfaces and pixie dust? The same thing that exists everywhere else: inequality, inequity, and the same old story of the rich getting richer off the backs of people willing to give everything for a dream they didn’t invent.

And yet, even in that critical moment, I couldn’t deny the complexity of the legacy. Credit where it’s due—Disney and the company Walt built have also created real opportunities for people to learn, grow, and launch meaningful careers. Both of my daughters have participated in the Disney College Program and have benefited deeply from the vision he set in motion. The legacy is complicated—but it’s not without value.

As the vision softened, so did my judgment. The clarity I felt began turning inward. Empathy began to emerge. I started to see Walt not as a villain, but as a man who did the best he could within a system that gave him a stage—and limits. He built something extraordinary. He dreamed big—not simply for profit, but because his imagination had once been stifled. And yes, he wanted to be paid. Don’t we all? Even me, writing on Medium. Maybe Walt didn’t forget where he came from. Maybe his dream was rooted in that memory. Maybe the blind spots didn’t come from evil intent, but from the slow erosion that happens when success numbs self-awareness.

That’s the thing. The monster wasn’t the dream. The monster was the appetite to sell it. And that hunger isn’t unique to Walt. It’s not unique to Disney. It lives in all of us. We trade the messy, sacred truth of real life for something shinier. Easier. Safer. We chase success as if it proves something. We believe that if we just dream big enough, work hard enough, we’ll get what we deserve. But that’s not gospel. That’s marketing.

Jesus didn’t buy into the dream of empire. He was offered all the kingdoms of the world and turned them down. Why? Because real power doesn’t come from illusion. It doesn’t come from building something shiny on the surface. It comes from humility. Truth. Justice. Mercy. Love.

We don’t need more spectacle. We need more substance. Forget the fake. It may glitter. It may sing. But it won’t save. Only Jesus can do that.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
The American Dream may offer comfort, but it can’t offer Christ. Don’t settle for the illusion of magic when what you need is resurrection.

PRAYER
God of truth, awaken me from the dreams that deceive. Help me see through the illusions of power, prestige, and performance. Teach me to long not for the kingdoms of this world, but for your Kingdom come—on earth as it is in heaven. Make me brave enough to let go of the fake, and faithful enough to walk in what’s real. Amen.

Devotion written by Rev. Todd R. Lattig with the assistance of ChatGPT (OpenAI).

Devotional

The Sermon, part 15: Authentic Prayer

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Read Matthew 6:5-6

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“God detests the prayers of a person who ignores the law.” (Proverbs 28:9 NLT)

authentic-indian-laoshan-sandalwood-prayer-beads-bracelets-16-mm-beads-8a8143da7a340fb23016a36462a24820There can be no doubt that Jesus was for authenticity. Jesus was not a fan of fake people and he had a word he liked to use toward fake people: “hypocrites”. The word “hypocrites” in Greek (the language Matthew was written in) is ὑποκριτής (pronounced hoop-ok-ree-tace’) literally means “stage actor.” Thus, properly speaking, a hypocrite is a person who puts on a show.

Unfortunately, today’s passage has become one of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted texts in the enitre New Testament. Throughout Christian history, it has been an unfortunate reality that Judaism has gotten the short end of the stick. They’ve taken the blame for “killing Jesus”, they’ve taken the blame for being more concerned with “the law” than with God or human beings, and they’ve taken the blame for just about everything you can imagine.

This, in my mind, is a blight on Christianity and it is to our shame that Christians have in the past and continue to look down their proverbial noses at our Jewish brothers and sisters. Do we forget that Jesus was a faithful Jewish rabbi and prophet? Do we forget that Jesus claimed to be the JEWISH messiah? Do we forget that Paul and some of the earliest Christians were, in fact, Jewish?

In fact, Paul had some choice words for Christians who were starting to discriminate against Jews within the church in Rome. “You, by nature, were a branch cut from a wild olive tree. So if God was willing to do something contrary to nature by grafting you into His cultivated tree, He will be far more eager to graft the original branches back into the tree where they belong” (Romans 11:24 NLT). While Paul was trying to understand Judaism in the context of the risen Christ, and he was trying to develop his own soteriology (understanding of Salvation) in light of the fact that many Jews had not accepted Christ as the Jewish Messiah, he also did not condone, nor did he participate in, the bashing or blaming of his Jewish brothers and sisters.

Now, back to prayer. Jesus states in verse 5 that one should not “pray as the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on the street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them.” This verse was not meant to be taken literally as a pronouncement against public prayer. First off, the synagogue is known as a house of prayer and it is where countless Jews, Jesus included, went to pray and worship. Public prayer in the synagogue was normal and quite called for, just as it is called for in our churches.

Second, public prayer in the street corners was NOT a normal practice in Judaism, nor was it necessary. It is inherently wrong and slanderous for Christians to propogate this as a common practice in Judaism. Again, Jesus was not saying this a commanded prohibition against the act of public prayer, which he clearly wanted the church to engage in (Matthew 18:19-20), but on the intent behind it! This is important to note.

What Jesus is doing is calling us to look within our own hearts and search the motive(s) behind our prayer. Are we praying for recognition, to appear to be holy, or to gain some sort of selfish desire? Are we stage actors, putting on a good show and pretending to be something we totally are not? Or are we praying to GOD alone, for the sake of praying to God? Is our prayer centered on God, and God’s will, fully expectant that God objectively hears and listens to our prayers? Do we believe, or are we mere stage actors looking for something else?

Jesus’ comman to go in a closet, or to be alone when praying, is not meant to be taken literally; rather, it is asking us if our prayer is centered on God ALONE and, on top of that, are we totally focused on GOD alone. We can fake pray in the closet too, just as easily as we can in a public place. The location, nor the company, is not what matters, what matters is the authenticity. Where are you in your prayer life? Are you authentic? Are you solely focused on God, or are have you let others (yourself included) into that (metaphorical) space that is meant to be for God alone? Reflect on this and be challenged by it to further develop your prayer life.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
“To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” – Martin Luther

PRAYER
Lord, I offer you my authentic prayers for I know that you alone hear them when I pray. Amen.

Devotional

Crossroads

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Read Luke 6:43-49

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“Jesus said to everyone, ‘All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow me. All who want to save their lives will lose them. But all who lose their lives because of me will save them.’” (Luke 9:23-24 CEB).

CrossroadSince the recent attacks on Paris shocked the world, there has been a lot of debate on what the appropriate response to all of this is. What’s more, the current Syrian refugee crisis has come front and center as people realize the possibility that terrorists can blend in with the refugees and sneak into the countries who accept them in. Naturally, people are worried (and even afraid) of the dangers looming over the decision of letting minimally vetted people into their country.

Without doubt, many Christians have entered the debate coming from varying angles. Some Christians have argued that we either shouldn’t allow any refugees in or we should only allow Christians in. These Christians feel that, though they have sympathy toward the refugees, it is most important to protect our homeland and its citizens. Because there is no real way to adequately screen the millions of refugees pouring out of Syria, these Christians and many others (regardless of religious affiliation) fear that allowing such people in could have catestrophic and deadly consequences.

Many have argued that the Christian response would be to welcome them in. After all, God in the Hebrew Scriptures called the Israelites, and by extension us,  to be welcoming of and kind to foreigners and strangers. Also, Jesus called for such mercy and compassion toward others as well. In Matthew 25, Jesus tells a few parables on the Kingdom of Heaven. The last parable describes God separating the faithful from the wicked, just as a king who separates the sheep from the goats. The sheep, being faithful, have lived lives of radical compassion and service toward all who are in need. The goats were wicked because, though they claimed to follow the king, they refused to live lives of radical compassion and service toward all who are in need.

The point of this is not to choose sides between the two options, or anything in between. That is not my job, nor my goal, in writing this devotion. That discernment is up to you, as a Christian or person of faith. The point I am trying to bring out, by highlighting this current issue, is that Christians today find themselves in a place where faith goes far beyond the pew on a Sunday morning. It is one thing to say, “I’m a Christian. I believe in Jesus.” It is a completely different thing to deny yourself (e.g. your desires, your successes, your status, your hopes and your fears), pick up your cross, and follow Jesus.

Today, we find ourselves, ever increasingly, at crossroad not unlike what Jesus’ disciples and the earliest Christians found themselves at. Evil, injustice, and oppression are rearing their ugly heads in our world at alarming rates. No longer is it okay for Christians to be complacent as if the only thing that matters is “professing” Jesus’ name with their lips. That sort of “faith”, as James rightly exclaims, is dead! That is really no faith at all. What Christ is looking for, as is clear in the sheep/goats parable, is followers who are committed to LIVING out their faith in the world. Christ is looking for Christians who will seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. Christ is looking for people who will resist the status quo like he did. He is calling us to stand against injustice, evil and oppression. He is calling us to be committed to radically compassionate service toward all of the “least of these”, regardless of who they are, where they’re from, or what others think of them or say about them. There can be no debate that this, for Jesus Christ, is what being his follower is all about.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
“Go in through the narrow gate. The gate that leads to destruction is broad and the road wide, so many people enter through it. But the gate that leads to life is narrow and the road difficult, so few people find it.” – Jesus, the Christ (Matthew 7:13-14 CEB).

PRAYER
Lord, keep steering me toward the resurrected life of justice, mercy, compassion, humility and faithful action. Amen.