William Faulkner, the novelist, toiled for years as an unknown, disrespected writer in rural Mississippi before he finally gained recognition. When he won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1950, his acclaim grew. When approached later about the literary people and authors he associated with, Faulkner shrugged his shoulders and said, "I don't know any literary people. The people I know are other farmers and horse people and hunters and we talk about dogs and guns and what to do about the hay crop or this cotton crop, not about literature."

You see Faulkner was already friends with real people, unpretentious people. He was friends with people who were honest about their lives and about living. He chose, even after his success, to continue to surround himself with those who populated his stories and actually lived his intensely human fiction, rather than those who simply talked about the South, or wrote about the South.

Authenticity!! It is the ingredient that will make your Christian life convincing. And repentance is the first step to getting there.