Are we even capable of being truly authentic? This is a question that has been nagging me lately. I am feeling pretty inauthentic. It's not a meltdown or depression. It's simply busy-ness. It's being too busy to explore the deep life of my soul. So I rely on pat answers and churchy expressions among fellow Christians and lean on pop-culture references and the news in conversation with pre-Christian friends. How pathetic.

Whatever happened to passionate, authentic, transparent living? Have you ever felt this way? Like you lost something you had once and you don't even know how? That's where I'm at. Now the hard part: figuring out how to reclaim it. To live authentically and passionately and out loud and openly. I want everyone who knows me to know the same person, not workjoel, churchjoel, daddyjoel, husbandjoel. Just joel.