Masks
COVID-19 is teaching us new perspectives and stretching us way out of our comfort zones, isn’t it? Some of us are stuck at home, perhaps bored out of our minds, getting on each other’s nerves, or maybe stressing over income, investment losses, health concerns etc. Whichever lot is yours, are you taking full advantage of it?
What do I mean, “taking full advantage of it” you might ask? Allow me to elaborate.
The above picture was taken at the grocery store recently and I wore the mask not to protect myself from COVID-19 but rather to calm other people’s fears since I had a mild cough from a recent head cold. That is not to say wearing a mask for my own protection these days is unwarranted. One thing I noticed while wearing it was that I could not be my normal “smile and say hello to people” self. I was stuck behind this thing that kept me from revealing my gregarious self, leaving me frustrated like a dog on a leash wishing to sniff a tree stump and not being allowed to. It also got my imagination going with thoughts of “gee I could sneer at people or stick my tongue out at them and they’d never know that either! Wow, this thing could give me real freedom to be a total jerk in anonymity! I could have an entire hidden world of attitude and no one would know but me!”
How many of us do this with our relationship with the Lord and others? Granted, some masks are useful to a point, sometimes we need to “tough it out” and not dump our neurotic self-pity on every listening ear that comes our way. You can call that a “mask of perseverance”. But how about our masks of pride, fear, self-sufficiency, impatience, doubt, raw unbelief, anger, or self-pity, just to name a few. Many so-called believers have layers of these masks, rivaling the N-95 masks everyone is craving. But what are those masks doing for us? Are they keeping us safe? If so, from what? What if they are keeping out something we actually need? What if they are filtering out a deep communion with the Father that only comes when we are able to come undone in the presence of others who are there to minister to us. Jesus was a master of ripping masks off people: the multi-divorced woman at the well, the blind man in John 9, Peter when he swore to die for Jesus, lots of Pharisees and on and on. What makes us think that He will do any less with us?
So how does He pull these masks off of us? He is a gentle shepherd after all, the calmer of the storms, a mother hen who would cover us with His wings. So how does He do it? Two ways: truth and suffering. Sometimes He speaks to us in the gentle breezes, whispering through His word as we read, wrestle and pray. We are convicted and we cry out to Him as truth rips through our soul and grieves us to the point of repentance and joy. The other 90% of the time… He uses suffering. I believe He uses this because we are all so unwilling to “take our soul to task” to quote Richard Sibbes. Plenty of passages reinforce this principle of His bringing us to the end of ourselves that we might find our all in Him. I imagine this current plight we are in might well be the opportunity we need for examining our souls as we see those darker sides of ourselves come out, those areas we usually mask so well, but which no longer remain contained because of the pressures of suffering. Take advantage of it! Acknowledge your weakness, your “besetting sins” to the Lover of your soul. He is waiting to forgive you, heal you, change you but until now you have been unwilling. He delights in the prayers of His repentant child. He already knows how weak you are and has been patiently waiting for you to agree.
Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being. In the hidden parts You will make me know wisdom. Purify me with hyssop and I shall be clean, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, let the bones which You have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sin and blot out all my iniquities. PS 51:6-9 (NASB)