The Mask Is Still On

It’s time to take the mask off after today, but will you? The mask is still on after Halloween for most people as they rush off to work or school and on to their next adventure. Oh wait, this includes COVID too. Many never took their masks off and some of those who did are starting to put them back on again. Yes, this is the new normal. But the truth is that most people have been putting a mask on for most of their lives.

The Former Days

For all those who are younger, bear with me as I reminisce. I remember as a child how our summers were endless. They were Seasons in the Sun as Terry Jacks would sing it. Even our evenings after school were about reconnecting with friends in the great outdoors…even during the winters of Indiana.  

We played ball in the fields and backyards – football, baseball, basketball (soccer wasn’t a thing yet), and Ultimate Frisbee (no we didn’t call it Ultimate Disk). We played make-believe War, and Capture the Flag, and we went sledding, rode our bikes everywhere, and made many other fun times up with our creativeness.  

The Roles My Sisters and I Played

I had two sisters.  My older sister was the ‘quiet as a mouse’ girl. I even had to go to the neighbor’s houses and ask if the girls wanted to come out to play with my sister because she was so shy. Hi big sister, I know you are reading this. I love you <<smile>>.

My other sister (7 years younger) was the rebel.  If Trouble was to be found, she would find it. She was probably the smartest of the three of us and was always bored in school, which usually led to trouble.

Not Who I Was

Me?  I was the hero and not by choice.  I didn’t wear a cape, but I performed above my ability.  What I didn’t have in skill and gifts, I made up in hard work.  I practiced harder, ran further, stayed longer, and pushed more. If I could just be good enough, it would make things better I thought.

I put on my mask daily because of what I didn’t want others to see.  The masks people wear could be because of hurt, pain, embarrassment, feeling ugly inward and/or outward, a lack of some kind, being judged, and much more.  Eventually, I was caught off guard and caught without my mask on. We all are at some time or another. It’s just a matter of time.

Ephesians 4:20-24  MSG

But that’s no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.

Peter Panning on Hook

“Oh, it’s you (when the mask comes off)!”  I remember the movie Hook with Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman.  I watched it 50 times or more when my oldest child (now 33) was a little shaver.  Tinker Bell was trying to convince the Lost Boys that this now older man was actually Peter Pan.  One of the little lost boys came up to Peter and started tugging on his cheeks and pulling on his skin to try and see if he could see Peter ‘in there’ somewhere. Then he finally sees it, “Oh, it is you Peter – there you are!”

Challenge of the Week 

See yourself the way God sees you.  Let no one convince you otherwise. Let others see you the way God created you to be.  Find a verse that says what God says about you and live that out this week. Let the real you be revealed that has been hidden by the mask, which for some has been hidden way too long.  Time to be you, in Christ.  So be it!