Mask Off


Have you ever noticed how many of the superheroes put on masks when it’s time to do their “superhero jobs”? Batman and Robin, Spiderman, the Green Lantern, Captain America and Wonder Dog all wear the mask to fight against evil. There they are, with their colored masks hiding their true identity.

My personal favorite is Superman. When he’s fighting back evil, it is full disclosure time. He is being who he truly is, when he takes OFF his mask — those oversized black-framed glasses. When he’s doing what he was made to do, doing it fully revealed, he’s more himself than at any other time.

In today’s world, there is a crying-out by the public at large for genuineness. We’ve been disappointed over and over by those who, after it’s too late, aren’t who they said they were. If we’re honest, maybe it’s true in our own relationships with other believers. If we’re even more honest, maybe we’ve been the cause of someone else’s disappointment. And perhaps that disappointment wasn’t due to something sleazy uncovered in our lives, but because we were unwilling to demonstrate anything real in our lives. Why the masks? I wonder sometimes if our very DNA includes the chromosome known as “image.” Concealed behind image resides the word “pride.” Proverbs 11:2 says; “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.”

Imagine for just a moment what would your life look like if you took off the mask and depended completely on God’s power to do what He’s planned for you to do? It would mean getting down off the pedestal. It would mean being just the “signpost.” It would indeed be humbling. Think further— Consider the impact of God’s people in this country and worldwide if, we would once and for all chose to remove the masks and defeat our own pride and fight for truth —real, authentic, bona fide life-altering, humble truth. It’s time to come out from under the mask.

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