Wearing Masks

The past week or so I’ve been re-listening to one of my favorite books. I initially read this a few years ago when I was in a men’s group, where we read and reported on one book per month for nearly a year. The title of the book is The Cure – What If God Isn’t Who You Think He Is and Neither Are You, by John Lynch, Bruce McNicol, and Bill Thrall.

Earlier this week, the chapter I listened to really captivated my heart. It resounded with the warmth and grace I’ve experienced this important reality in my journey with Jesus. And it inspired me to parcel out nuggets of the teaching that others (both men and women) might be truly touched and changed by what God is saying through these writers.

Please read, meditate on, and anticipate God speaking to your heart through his Spirit within you. Then make some notes in your journal to capture the richness of your encounter with Him.

We lose confidence in our true identity

“We will be tempted to return to our masks each time we lose confidence in our true identity. Daring to trust who Christ says I am and who He says He is in me, even when I feel like I least deserve it, and the old shame sweeps over me — this is the only way to keep the mask off and to keep feeling the cool breeze on my face. We face even more pressure as followers of Christ and are tempted to dawn our masks more if we’ve not trusted our true identity.

The Cure, chapter 2

All of us are tempted to wear a mask when…

• we want to prove to others we are worthy of their love.
• we want to prove to ourselves that we are worthy of loving ourselves.
• we want others not to feel sorry for us.
• we fear if others see us truly, they won’t want to know us.
• we want to be seen as great.

And from the perspective of our relationship with God…

• our failures tell us our experiment with grace didn’t work.
• we want to prove to God that we are worth His choice to love us.
• we believe God wants us to fake it so He looks good.
• we want God to make our life work, and our behavior seem like the price tag.
• we think God cares more about right behaviors than our trust and dependence in Him.
• we think we’re in competition with others, graded on a spiritual curve.
• our shame makes us believe we must dissuade God’s disgust in us.

Jesus, our true identity

God created each of us to find our true identity only in Him, through faith, trust, and surrender to Jesus Christ.

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