By Gary Woodall
I think many of us feel like we have been released from prison now that masks are optional at the church building. It is truly great to be getting back to a more normal situation as we worship God together.
Did you know some people choose to wear masks all the time?
It is one thing to put your best foot forward, to put on a happy face, to fix your hair, and to act better than you feel until you actually do feel better. It is a whole other thing to wear a mask that hides who we really are and covers up reality in order to deceive. Do you wear a mask of goodness and use it to cover a reality of anger and abuse of others? Do you wear a mask of kindness to cover a reality of ugliness? A mask of authenticity and honesty to mask dishonesty?
Take off the mask! Look at yourself and see if you are hiding something from others or if you are hiding something from yourself. We are usually much better at deceiving ourselves than we are at deceiving others, so careful self-examination is a critical part of being a Christian. Maybe that is why we are told to examine ourselves (I Cor. 11:28) as we partake of the Lord’s super. Don’t deceive yourself.
We may even think we can mask it from God himself. We cannot hide our true self from God….
And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do (Hebrews 4:13, NASB).
Though his hatred covers itself with guile, His wickedness will be revealed before the assembly (Proverbs 26:26, NASB).
We can get so used to the mask we wear that we become complacent and ignore the faults that we hide. Be honest with God, yourself, and others.