Real

So did you hear about Nebraska Coach Bo Pilini's profane rant about Cornhusker fans? If you follow college football at all, of course you did. Now, while I like to provide media links and embedded files for illustration, I don't think so this time. The language is way over the top, and so is his temper. If you haven't heard it and want to find it, I'm sure you can.

Let me say up front that I think the release of the recording was an unfair thing to do and obviously timed to embarrass him after a huge loss to UCLA. Nebraska fans are not happy with him. But the recording was made at a time when Coach Pelini thought he was in private, and it was two years ago.

Two years ago? A fair point. In private? Not so fast, my friend.

Authenticity. It is so lacking today. We wear so many masks - one for our family, one for our church friends, one for our golfing buddies, one for our co-workers...I could go on and on. We are so skilled at letting people see who we want them to see.

We ask for prayer from some people, and try to show we are confident and self-reliant in front of others.

We watch our language around our religious friends and curse like a sailor in the locker room.

We thank God for our meal...when we are with others who do the same.

We watch our diet around people that we know will challenge us about gluttony, and then sneak off to eat a double cheeseburger as soon as they're gone.

And so on. You could probably add a dozen examples.

The fact is, we are expert mask wearers. And Jesus had a word for it, one that literally meant "an actor in a play." Hypocrite.

It's really the only thing that he chewed people out about. He hung out with sinners, tax collectors, partiers, and prostitutes. He shared God's love with them and invited them to leave their party and join the great banquet of the King. But the hypocrites? Boom!

“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn that person into twice the child of hell you yourselves are!

  “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too.

“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity." (Matthew 23:15, 25-28)

Like I said...BOOM!

I think Jesus would say the thing Bo Pilini needs to learn from this is to be the same person in private that he is in public. To be authentic. But more importantly, that is what he would say to me. I need to be one person - the same person in private, around my family, around my friends, around my co-workers. To not hide my faults, or the things I think you wouldn't approve of. Authentic, the good and the bad, not some image that I want people to like.

Real.