Live Bare-Faced

Sometimes we try to put on the right face. When we’re sad, we try to pretend that we’re happy. When we’re angry, we try to pretend that we’re walking in peace. When we don’t have enough money, we try to pretend that we have all that we need. Sometimes those masks begin to weigh a ton and it takes both hands to keep them in place. It also makes us question the sincerity of everyone else around us. If we are not being real, how do we know if anyone else is?

Jesus calls us into an authentic relationship with Him. He also tells us to be honest with one another. We are supposed to be imitators of Christ and He never tried to pretend to be anything that he wasn’t. In fact, He never used His deity to make anyone feel inferior; He exhorted others and built them up, but was always real. The Bible says there was nothing lovely about Him yet all He did demonstrated love.

I believe that in our culture we spent too much time focused on outward appearances and very little time looking at the heart of others. We spend virtually no time looking at our own hearts. It is the heart that makes one beautiful and you can always spot someone’s inward heart on their outside. Somehow the heart manages to shine through in their actions and in their words.

I am determined to live a life without masks. I want my inward heart to be the thing that people notice most when they encounter me. I want my words to give life and hope. I don’t want them to notice my hair or my eye color or anything about my physicality. When they walk away from me, I want them to remember the words that I spoke, the way I made them feel, the things I made them think about.

We don’t really know what Christ looked like, but we are still talking about His words, and the miracles that He performed, and the way He changed peoples lives, and the way He’s still changing lives today. He was beautiful then and He is beautiful now. And I believe our faith in Him makes each one of us beautiful. So take off your mask and radiate the beauty of the One you have faith in.