Wednesday, July
8, 2020
“You can’t keep
your true self hidden forever; before long you’ll be exposed. You can’t hide
behind a religious mask forever; sooner or later the mask will slip and your
true face will be known. You can’t whisper one thing in private and preach the
opposite in public; the day’s coming when those whispers will be repeated all
over town.” (Luke 12: 2-3)
(I am going to take a
three week break. We will get together again on Wednesday, August 5.)
I don’t feel like the Lone Ranger
because my mask has slipped way down my face and sometimes it feels like I am
about to rob a bank, but I have begun to wear a medical cloth mask whenever I
am out in public. (Some might say it is an improvement and should have happened
long ago.) As Susan and I reconnect
slowly with family, I think it is wiser and safer for them and us to take simple,
common sense precautions.
Some people are protesting the
mandatory use of masks which I quite frankly don’t get. I will admit that my
mask can be slightly uncomfortable in this heat wave we are having, fogging up
my glasses in stores and poking at my claustrophobia ever so slightly but it
still is no big deal. It is nothing permanent. Mind you, just this morning, I
read an article on how to put on, wear and clean our masks, what to do and what
not do to do. Now, that was daunting! But
I am still going to wear my mask until this pandemic is over once and for all.
This may be the only time in our
lives when wearing masks is a good thing. But Jesus wasn’t talking about
physical masks, of course. He was talking about our outward masks of elitism and
thinking we are better than anyone else. He seems especially mindful of the hypocrisy
of religious people who say all the right things about faith, love, compassion,
grace and justice but don’t practice what they preach. Their superficial piety cloaks
a judgemental, critical, discriminatory attitude of superiority and self-righteousness.
There are other kinds of masks
we wear. We hide our pain and hurt and grief. We hide our mental health issues.
We hide our worry and anxiety. We put on a happy face and hope others won’t notice
we are hurting inside. We don’t want others to know we are feeling weak,
afraid, broken or just plain worn out. We pretend that everything is okay when it
isn’t. Sometimes, some might feel guilty about their hidden feelings, because they
think that a Christian shouldn’t ever feel this way and therefore their faith is
now weak, to top it all off.
But sooner or later the mask drops
and we have to deal with what is inside. God’s Love is healing but God’s Love also
can expose what is eating away at us before it can begin the healing process.
It can be risky to let our masks fall
off our souls just as it is risky not using a mask during these Covid19 times.
Some might judge us, ridicule us, disrespect us, think less of us, but compared
to the pain we are hiding, those brief and temporary realties are small things
which we shouldn’t sweat. Those sorts of people have got their own stuffy mask
to contend with.
You or I need to breathe in some fresh air for the heart, soul and
spirit. We need the Spirit of God to restore our soul. It can be daunting to
let God really see us for ourselves. But if we say that God loves us unconditionally,
why don’t we live and act like that it is really true? God sees under these
masks anyway; we are not fooling God.
Let the Sonshine in!
Dale
