Masks

To wear a mask or not to wear a mask, that is the question. Based on the title and the question you might think that I am going to write about the issue we have been dealing with since Spring of 2020. But this article is not about the mask mandates or the ever-changing rules by our government officials or the science of whether wearing a paper or cloth mask is effective in stopping an airborne virus.

This article deals with people wearing different type of masks as they walk through this life. All people put on invisible masks every day to hide our true selves and those invisible masks are more damaging than the cloth or paper masks we are sometimes mandated to wear in public.

People wear a different mask to work, to church, to school or at home? I must admit, there are days when I have several masks that I pull out of my closet. My "happy" mask to show that everything is going great, my "I know everything" mask to show my independence and my "I'm not hurt" mask to hide my feelings. We all wear masks for different reasons.

In his book "Holiness," J. C. Ryle states, "Because of sin, we've lost confidence that we will always please our audience, so we feel compelled to hide and put on a mask."

However, once you put on that mask you must continue with the masquerade. We fear that we'll be exposed and at that point, nobody, not even God, can help us regain our confidence. Many think that sinning less is the proof of godliness. But when we fall short, we must put on a mask of acceptability.

If we think pleasing God involves doing more right and less wrong, then we will put on a behavior show to hide who we really are. The attempt to hide our unresolved sin issues is devastating. But God's grace allows us to live out of who He says we are. Instead of behaving to please God, we learn that our trust in Him pleases Him best.

We need to discover that the devastating source of defeat in the Christian life is in attempting to hide our unresolved sin issues, keeping us immature and unfulfilled. But God's way to an astonishing life begins as we start living as God sees us, standing with Him to work on our issues together.

As Christians, we know how to hide as well as anyone else. Let's stop pretending by hiding our guilt, fear and hurt behind these masks. We must learn to trust God and start living out our true selves that God intended us to be. Learn to become real with God and yourself. That will then lead us to show to "loving our neighbors as ourselves," which is the second greatest commandment taught by Jesus Christ. (Mark 12:31).

Remove your fake masks for in Christ we have true freedom that no one can take away from us.