BEHIND THE MASK
Psalm 139:1-4
1 You have searched me, LORD, and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely.
Over the years I’ve guided 1000's of bowhunters and turkey hunters. Nearly every one of them had one thing in common… they covered their face with something. Some used face masks and others used camo makeup. But whatever they used they did their best to hide their faces from everything around them.
Yesterday afternoon the streets and neighborhoods of our country were filled with millions of little Supermen, Wonder Women, princesses and Spiderman. Costumes were the fashion of the day. There were masked faces everywhere up and down the streets.
When I was a kid the only way that you got your face covered for Halloween was if your mom had an old sheet that she let you cut two holes in to dress up as Casper the Friendly Ghost or your parents bought a cheap plastic shell of a mask.
Masks are extremely popular on Halloween and on some other certain occasions. In Europe back in the 1600 and 1700’s masquerade balls were a common thing. Today wearing an actual mask is mostly held to one day a year… but unfortunately wearing a figurative mask is an everyday occurrence.
Do you ever feel like you are wearing a mask? Do you find yourself pretending to be someone you’re not? We really like others to think that we have it all together so we put a mask on with a big smile or a look of confidence painted on. But all the time, our “all together” is falling all apart behind the mask. And all the time we are hiding behind the mask we’re worried that we will be found out for who or what we really are.
How often are we asked “how are you doing today” and we say, “great, how are you”? But we really want to cry and say, “I’m lousy, I could really use some help”. Our pride and fear won’t allow us to be vulnerable.
In God’s eyes we are not hiding anything. In Psalm 139 we read that God knows us inside and out. He is not surprised by anything… we are an open book. One of the things that might surprise us is that many of those that are close to us also see through the mask we are wearing and know what lies behind it. Yet they love us anyway.
Because nearly everyone is wearing some sort of mask we never see the real person. We think that we are the only person that is struggling. We feel like a failure because everyone else is also answering the question with, “GREAT! How are you”?
With God we can take off our mask with perfect comfort. He already knows us and he loves us no matter what. We also need to take off our masks with those around us. Allow them to know the real you. Allow them to love us for who we really are. This will allow true authentic relationships with each other and we might just find that we are all struggling and we can help each other in love.
Come out from behind the mask. Be the real you.
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