I don’t know about you, but I’m drawn to people who are “real.” In fact, I quit social media a few years ago because it was hard for me to look at everyone else’s highlight reels while going through my own personal seasons of feeling like I was living anything but my best life.
When my kids were little:
“Hey, look at their perfect family photos. They seem so happy and put together. I’m just glad Elijah and Eva made it through the day fed and clothed and that I didn’t have a meltdown with them when things really came unhinged at the grocery store.”
Turns out that “perfect family” has bad days, too. They just don’t post temper tantrums on their Instagram.
When I finally started to believe I belonged in the business space as an entrepreneur:
“Look at all these other successful business owners out there and all the things they’re accomplishing. They have it all. Influence. Success. Powerful friendships and the perfect marriage. They know so much more about everything than I do. I’m a total fake.”
Turns out “success” can still result in broken marriages and even bankruptcy.
So, waaaaaay back when Cornerstone was a baby company and I was answering phone calls and emails from my kitchen table while my kids napped (see this post for more on that season!), I made the decision to connect with people who called or emailed in for their first appointment authentically. That usually sounded something like this:
“Hey, I really think it was a brave thing of you to reach out. From what you’re telling me, I hear that you’re struggling right now, and that’s okay. You’re not alone. There’s nothing wrong with you. That’s just life, and that’s why we’re here.”
Sometimes I would even go so far as to relate a personal struggle I was in the middle of to that client’s situation just to let them know that we’ve all got something going on – that those of us in the counseling field don’t have it all together all the time, either. Most times, I could actually hear the relief in their voice as they scheduled their first session.
And so our value of Authenticity was born:
Authenticity: We “come as we are,” while honoring the work God is doing in each of our lives with humility and vulnerability, believing in His transformative power.
While I’m not a counselor and I can’t speak to what happens in your sessions, I can speak to the power of authenticity through my own. And something other-worldly almost takes over when we sit down to share our hearts and minds with another human in the counseling setting – we’re longing to be reaffirmed that we’re not alone in our own brokenness. And those clinicians that share just enough of their own brokenness with me usually have the most profound impact on my healing.
So as we work with clients, whether in the office or in the counseling room, I’m hopeful that we ooze authenticity. I’m hopeful we say in our words and in our presence: It’s okay to come as you are here – bring it all! Your hurt. Your brokenness. Your confusion. Your frustration. Even in the midst of all of that, we still believe that God is up to something if we are willing to be humble and vulnerable enough to let Him lead us through it.
This is something I believe we do so well as a team. While many “out there” have (not always wrongly) accused Christianity of being filled with people full of false pretense – acting like we have it together on the outside while behind closed doors we’re a mess – I have never seen that at Cornerstone. Instead, I have seen humility. Vulnerability. Care. Concern. Candidness. A willingness to “rumble” for the sake of relationship. And my gosh sometimes the “in-process” part is so, so hard, but I have never seen God let any authenticity be wasted if we’re just willing to show up in the process. He is always up to something, and the more authentic we can be with ourselves and others while we work this out, the deeper the healing.
So thank you. Thank you for being a team of people who live this out so well, every single day. I see it as we engage with each other as co-workers, as we engage with clients, and as we share areas of our personal lives with one another as friends. Authenticity understands that we’re broken and we live in a broken world, and says we’re not trying to hide any of that – no highlight reels here! – and yet we’ve got each other to encourage and remind one another that God’s transformative power and sovereignty in each situation ensures nothing is wasted.
It’s an honor to share this value of authenticity with you in the work we do, friends. Thank you for being your authentic selves; we are truly better as a group because of it.
