France is famous for its cheese. One famous variety is Roquefort, which the uninitiated might say is just bleu cheese. Au contraire, mon ami, its much more than that. One doesn't call a Ferrari just a car and Roquefort is not just a bleu cheese. Rather, it is known as the cheese of kings and popes, said to be loved by none other than the emperor Charlemagne. To be officially donned Roquefort, a cheese must be aged in caves four miles deep into Mount Canbalou in the south of France, where the cool humid atmosphere gives it a characteristic blue-green marbling. Which is the color the face of a Velveeta-loving American tourist turns when tasting it for the first time. Who first decided to leave sheep cheese rotting in a cave for three months? Legend has it that it was a smitten shepherd who left his lunch at the mouth of a cave to woo a shepherdess, only returning to find it moldy. Let's just hope he got the girl. But, like it or not, Roquefort has been given Protected Designation of Origin status by the EU, rivaled only by something called the Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb, undoubtedly taking its name from draconian methods British mothers use to get their little Liam to eat the famous English veggie.
France has some of the strictest copyright laws there are, due to its famous brand names and the creativity of its artistic firms. When you are a world capital of fashion, food and the arts you have to be on your toes to both stay at the pinnacle of refined taste and culture, as well as hide the fact you enjoy an occasional Big Mac at the drive-thru. At France's borders, customs agents seized 7 million counterfeit objects in 2010, yet that still did not prevent losses of 40,000 jobs and six billion dollars to counterfeiting. It's a big business world-wide, making up seven percent of total world trade, a testimony to the fact that it's hard to turn down paying $20 for a Louis Vuitton purse while on vacation in Thailand. Just be careful if you happen to have that little status symbol on your arm when passing through Charles de Gaulle airport. It could cost you as much as five years in a French jail or a maximum fine of €500,000. It seems there is a high price to pay for being fake.
The French can teach us a lot about the authenticity of things. Here, everything from sculptures to speeches to screen plays can be strictly copyrighted. And the biggest criteria to qualify for a copyright protected by French law? It has to be original. And the definition of an original work is that it is "endowed with the personality of its author". I can't help but draw a comparison to us as people who Genesis says were created in the image of God. You, my friend, are an original who bears the stamp of authenticity from the universe's number one unrivaled Designer. So why would we settle for being a cheap counterfeit of something else? When we are not authentic, our true selves are imprisoned in cells of shame and fear and our lives pay a price, becoming bankrupt of real value. We were made to be more than cheap knock-offs of something else. We were fashioned out of the creative genius of a perfect Creator. In the kingdom of God, we as Christ-followers should police ourselves as diligently as the douane - the French customs agents - who search the bodies and baggage of people entering the Republic for anything suspected as fake. Counterfeits and lack of authenticity rob the originators of design the recognition and recompense they deserve. Equally, the inability to be our true selves ultimately deprives God of the glory due Him. So in our believing communities, we should uphold a strict ban on counterfeits in our personal relationships with one another and our spiritual relationship with God.
I really do want to be more authentic, both relationally and spiritually - in the way I talk to and about God, in the way I relate to people, and in the way I daily walk with Christ. It is not easy, especially when there are people with whom we compare ourselves that we consider to be the Yves Saint Laurents of the church - high quality and out of our price range. But that's part of the problem. When no one, especially leaders, lets down their guard long enough to be real - to cry, to confess, to show weakness, to voice doubt - then we all think the only way to preserve our value is to be an imitation. But that is not real Christian living. Believers in Christ are not inhuman, and to be human is to hurt, to feel deeply, to struggle, and yes, to fail. When we do not manifest this humanness, we inadvertently encourage those around us to join in trying to be some other kind of species, which is what super-spiritual, unreal believers come off looking like to the world.
The Gillette Company launched an ad campaign in 1980 for its antiperspirant, Dry Idea called "Never let them see you sweat". In one television commercial, actress Lauren Hutton says to the camera, "Three things I have learned in being an actress: never audition first thing in the morning; never try to play a character half your age; and even if your leading man is prettier than you are, never ever let 'em see you sweat". This is the mantra of a society whose heroes are people who excel at pretending to be someone else on camera. There is a huge difference between being an actor on a stage and an athlete in a stadium. When you have a teammate out on the playing field, not only can you see them sweat, but after a hug or a high five, you can surely smell and even feel the sweat. Communities of Christ-followers are called to keep it real with one another. No make-up. No posturing. No rehearsed lines. I'm tired of acting and trying to hide my sweat. We were not called to be carefully staged and preplanned but rather fully spontaneous and authentic. We're called to be on a team that, win or lose, sweats and smells together. There is a high price to pay for counterfeits, so why be anything other than an original?
