Day 341 - Masks

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Yesterday we talked about the drive to be known. There is a deep seated need for us to be known and to be accepted in the knowledge of who we are. Problem is that we have been hurt by those around us when we have allowed others into our lives. Being known has driven many of us to rely on false identities in an effort to not be hurt by the people we come into contact with in this world.

False identities are epitomized by the strategy of wearing masks when it comes to interacting with people around us. We create facades depending on our circumstances. We only let people see what we want them to know about us. We might have one mask for our family. When it comes to work, another mask is what we wear. 

Masks present an amazingly effective strategy for protecting ourselves from being rejected but they do little for our need to be known. The better we are at making our masks work for us the more alone we will feel. Some of the most lonely people I have ever met were those with the most, of what they would call, friends. Masks are great at generating quantity when it comes to friends, but masks do little to develop quality in those same friends. 

If you can relate to what I'm talking about here in any way, you can't blame those, so called, friends for how lonely you are. They are simply reacting to the mask you are wearing. You feel so alone because they really don't know who you are. The mask is blocking them from being able to see the real you. That loneliness you feel so profoundly is because the need to be known is being hindered by the masks you are wearing. 

Not only is loneliness a result of the strategy of relying on masks when it comes to identity, exhaustion is also the by product of wearing masks. It takes a lot of work to make masks do what we want them to do. This is especially the case when we are forced to wear multiple masks in this life. 

We have to keep straight all these false identities. The more elaborate our ruse when it comes to who we are the more exhausting the process of maintaining that ruse can be. That tiredness feeds the feeling of loneliness in ways that make victim thinking more and more of a possibility. Problem is that victim thinking makes us put on yet another mask to help protect us from the world really knowing how lonely and tired we are. 

I have experienced this case first hand. It was during those days when I was suffering form depression so badly that masks played an important role in my life. During those days, I didn't want people to know how depressed I was. Unfortunately for my family, that fact wasn't something that I could hide. For other, however, hide is what I did. 

The thought that I would be known as being depressed scared me so completely. People who could have been a big help to me simply weren't allowed in. My fear wouldn't let me let them in. I was afraid I would be seen in a light that my self-made identity just couldn't handle. I used masks to help portray an image of my life that was nothing more than a lie. 

Making that lie look like the truth nearly killed me. I was so tired from being depressed. Toss on top of that the work it took to make my mask work to protect me and you can see how tiredness really took over in my life. 

Worse than that, I felt so alone. Though I had many people around me I felt like I was completely shut out. My masks were isolating me. I have so many dear friends who would have given more than I could ever imagine where I able to have let them into my life at that time. My not knowing who I am allowed an ailment I was dealing with take me to places God never intended for my life.

Today's reading is a little longer than I normally present. I think it speaks so directly to the issue of being known in ways that honor God. Read it with me now.

If we die with him, we’ll live with him;
If we stick it out with him, we’ll rule with him;
If we turn our backs on him, he’ll turn his back on us;
If we give up on him, he does not give up—
    for there’s no way he can be false to himself.
Repeat these basic essentials over and over to God’s people. Warn them before God against pious nitpicking, which chips away at the faith. It just wears everyone out. Concentrate on doing your best for God, work you won’t be ashamed of, laying out the truth plain and simple. Stay clear of pious talk that is only talk. Words are not mere words, you know. If they’re not backed by a godly life, they accumulate as poison in the soul. 2 Timothy 2:13-17 (MSG)

Paul says that we are to "repeat these basis essentials over and over TO God's people." The essentials are nothing short of challenging to be sure. Paul is saying that we are to go great lengths when it comes to walking with this God. Perseverance, forgiveness, determination, even sacrifice are the essentials Paul says we are to repeat. I believe he is making this point because of what he quotes does as a result.

It isn't about what these essentials does in the world that God sees as important. It is what He does that we need to be focused upon. Masks make focusing on God's actions so hard for us to do. They block our view of God in ways that make these essentials seem meaningless and cruel.

Paul knew this to be the case. He wore many masks in his life. Those masks chipped away at his faith. His masks make it possible for Him to nit pick in pious ways that actually caused others to die. The work Paul was doing on behalf of God brought shame into his life in identity crushing ways. The poison in Paul's soul came as he allowed his actions to be driven by the masks He wore. Then Paul encounters God on a road to Damascus.

The incredible light of who God was shone through Paul's mask so powerfully it actually blinded him. Though his physical blindness was healed by God, I believe a blindness remained that we all need in our lives. I believe that encounter with God make it possible for Paul to be blinded to the need for masks in his life. I think that Paul came into contact with the inventor and completer of his identity so completely that masks no longer played the prominent role in Paul's life they once did. I want that kind of blindness in my life - I hope you do as well.

It is as we trust God in ways that allow us to remove the masks that we use to project an identity we think will be acceptable to those around us that our need to be known can start to be met. Deep down we want to be known but we are afraid. Being vulnerable has cost us in the past. Masks have been shown as absolutely necessary for the protection of who we are. Masks limit our growth. They hinder our ability to live in the power of who we are. It isn't until we are blinded by the light of who God is in our lives that masks will continue to damage us in identity backed ways. 

What masks are you wearing today? Are those masks doing for you what you really need? Isn't it time to let the light of God reveal who you are? Isn't it time to live in the power of that identity in ways that make this world hunger for the God that makes you who you are? May the fact that you are God's Child be all the identity you need to shed the masks that keep you from being known by those around you today.