WYSIWYG

My sophomore year of college I was on a drama team with five other people that traveled around one summer in a van together, putting on programs at churches and camps. One afternoon we were all talking along the lines of how we wanted to just be real with the people we encountered. One friend turned to me and said, "You know, WYSIWYG." I stared back at her in utter confusion. Nope, didn't know anything about this wysiwyg. As she continued to look at me as if I was a complete moron, she tried to rally the troops in support, expecting everyone to be with her on this whole WYSIWYG train. Everyone else was staring just as blankly as I was. Finally, in complete exasperation she explained, "WYSIWYG...what you see is what you get."

Oooooh.

Well that made a whole lot more sense after the explanation, and I have since used the expression often, and expressed my own exasperation for any fool who does not know what I'm talking about.

Last night Matt and I were talking about one of our good friends who we both agreed that we really enjoy being around. As we tried to nail down why that was, we concluded it came down to he's a WYSIWYG. He's just completely comfortable in who he is, and so he makes other people comfortable too. He doesn't try to impress people, and if someone doesn't like him he's not going to sweat about it. He's a confident dork, which we determined to be a great combination.

This doesn't come naturally for most. I was reading a passage from James about how people were showing favoritism to the rich that visited their gatherings. James was a little confused because these same people that were being treated better than the poor were the same people that were swindling them and taking them to court for all their worth. Seriously? Why do we do stuff like that? It's like we start acting like morons when even the slightest possibility of getting pushed up the social or financial scale emerges. Our own pride starts rearing it's ugly head.

So glad we don't have to live like that. So glad we can teach our children that Jesus shows us a better way. We don't have to impress; we can just be WYSIWYGs. Through Jesus we are completely loved, completely accepted, and completely free.  So here's to the nerds, dorks, dweebs, and even the coolest of the cool kids, laying it all down at the cross, trusting Him to be the only thing good worth shining through us anyway.