The Mask

Yesterday, I was blessed by some friends as they threw a baby shower for me. It was thrown by some of the people in Jason's company, so there were both men and women there. At the baby shower, there were football games on in the background and I knew the woman who hosted it to be a die-hard sports fan so I felt no qualms about wearing my Eagles jersey to the shower. It turns out, that isn't really standard. Don't get me wrong, most of the men there were rocking some for of a sports jersey, but most of the women were dressed up and looking extremely cute. Oops.

I felt bad and wondered aloud to Jason if I should've dressed up. Of course, his comment was that wearing an Eagles jersey is the fanciest clothing around, so he was little help. But I decided that it would've been sillier had I dressed up just for the sake of this party. I'm not a dressy person by any means and it truly wouldn't be me. So this all got me thinking about how often we try to make ourselves look a certain part in life. We have this tendency to dress ourselves up in different "costumes" for different people. With our church friends we tend to speak about Jesus a lot more. But with our coworkers, discussions range from reality TV to alcoholic beverages. We have so many different masks for different groups of friends, and this shouldn't be. The mask I want to talk about today is the mask of the religious.

Let me segway this in with a history lesson. Did you know that the origin for dressing up in church started because people wanted to "prove" to the world that they were elected by God? They wanted to prove that they were saved, and they figured one way to do that was to show off the ways that God had blessed them in their lives by providing them money for fancy clothes. To many people of the church, this became a way to say, "I am clean and put together, so God's hand must be in my life." And this is something I think the church still struggles with today.

Maybe we don't struggle with this in the way of what we wear (then again, maybe we do), but we certainly struggle with it in the way we present our lives. We want to offer up the squeaky clean, perfect version of ourselves so that others will know that God has saved us. Have you ever listened to people who have grown up in the church talk about their struggles? When testimonies are given, it is almost always stated, "I used to do this." Don't get me wrong, God changes us and does not leave us the same, all the while helping us to break away from our old sinful nature. But why do we always discuss struggles as if we had them once upon a time, but don't anymore? We have not been made perfect yet, but we want everyone to think we have.

This is so dangerous. It makes us completely unable to relate to people outside of the church when we give off the vibe that we have everything all together. Jesus knew it. That is why he called out the teachers of the law. They had all the rules down pat. They knew how to look the part and talk the talk, but inside they were dirty and sinful. Jesus said to them, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside will be clean as well" (Matthew 23:25-26). You see, once God starts his work on our hearts, the rest will show in the evidence of our lives. But Jesus was always more concerned about the heart than the outward appearance.

I once had a pastor talk about how he used to have a drug problem because his parents drug him to church. After the congregation finished laughing he made a comment that broke my heart. He said, "Don't worry, no drug problem here, could you imagine if your pastor had ever had one of those?" I was devastated. Who are we to say that a pastor cannot have had a past that dealt with drugs? How much power is in the testimony of a pastor who can speak of the healing and redemptive work of God in his life to a point of where they turn from a drug addiction into an evangelist? If you're like me, those are the stories you love. The ones of a total turn around. The ones where God takes us in our greatest weaknesses and turns us into warriors for his cause. And he doesn't only do it once in your life. It is an ongoing process.

So let's have Bible studies in which we take off our masks. Let's meet with friends and be able to discuss what we're being tempted by on a daily basis, not just temptations God has helped us overcome. Let's share just how imperfect, yet completely loved we are by a God who knows us without our masks. Let's learn to respond like Paul and be proud of our own weaknesses. Jesus spoke to him and said, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." And what was Paul's response? "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me" (2 Corinthians 12:9). You see, when we take off our masks and realize that we are weak, we can truly depend on Christ and see his power work in us. Until we recognize our dependence on him, how can we tell others to depend on him? Let's set the example and be vulnerable. Let's show people how it is possible for broken, hurting, failing people to love and be loved by the Lord of all.