Tearing Off the Masks

Do you know who you really are? Do others know the REAL you? A mask is designed and worn to conceal and to cover the real. Masks are so commonly worn in our relationships that they often become our reality. We don't know what it is like to take off our false identity and sense of self. It wasn't meant to be this way. We were created with a unique sense of beauty and inherent value by God.  We are stamped with an amazing and indelible image..... the image of God. "Then God said, Let us make man in Our image, according to our likeness..." No matter how broken we might become because of evil, abuse, failure or our own wayward ways, that image is never totally erased. We know we were born for love.  But part of the fallout from sin in our world is a deep sense of insecurity that plays on our sense of inherent value. We doubt we will ever find deep intimacy if people knew the 'real us'.  So we begin the confusing and tiring task of taking on multiple false identities. The strain of wearing masks to please others is both burdensome and debilitating. The more energy we take in becoming someone we're not, the less strength we have to just be who we really are. The longer we do down the road in this game of masquerade, the more in danger we are of losing our souls.  Your soul is the real you. Your personality, emotion, dreams, passion, gifting and desires are all wrapped tightly together into a physical package of unique DNA. God made you to be who you are. When you let go of that treasure and that supreme value of the unique you....well you're now as lost as you could ever be.
  No job, no relationship, no physical location will ever completely satisfy the man or woman who has lost their soul to a false identity. When you clothe yourself in another's desire and fantasy, you wake up with a deep sense of emptiness and despair. You may have the empty praise of a few 'friends' but you know deep inside they don't even know you. You might even be years into a marriage or intimate relationship scared to death knowing you've never revealed the real you. You've taken your clothes off, but you've never opened your heart up. Your deepest fear is that this house of cards built with masks might be revealed. What then?
  What has forced you to keep the masks on?  The biggest reason we don't come out and reveal who we really are is fear.... a deep sense of dread that if people really knew us, they would reject us. And it is certainly possible that we would face rejection from others when we initially 'come clean'. Not everyone knows what love is. Not everyone is fully capable of embracing truth in any form. But there is a source of unconditional love in a relationship with the God who made you..... You.  Yes, God knows everything about you.... and he likes that..... he loves you.  True beauty is founded not on an outward image but on an inward reality and truth far deeper and lasting. You were created, shaped and formed by a master creator whose nature is absolute and pure love.
  That mask you're wearing is not your friend. It's a burden that you must tear off of your face... your heart.... your mind. It's breaking your heart to not be truly loved for who you are .....right now. Life is all about relationships and you were created to love and to be loved.... for who you really are.
You're beautiful. God made you and he loves you the way you really are.  Look deep inside and listen for the voice of love, the voice of affirmation, the voice of truth. Let the masks come off today.... tear them off and come alive to the love you know you need.

Jim