No Masks, Please
Do you remember the ridiculous plastic masks we wore with our store-bought Halloween costumes back in the day? They not only developed a wet, sweaty condensation inside while being worn, but they hurt! Sometimes the plastic edges actually scratched or sliced your skin and the thin elastic bands would tangle in your hair. I think most of us gave up and wore them on top of our heads. Despite the pain, dressing up in costumes was pretty fun. Most kids love playing dress-up.
During my early days of teaching we actually had school-wide Halloween parades down the hallways of the school. It was a big deal, consuming much of the day because preparing for the parade took a while and it was followed by classroom parties. It was during one of the preparation times prior to the parade back in the early 90’s that children in my classroom were scurrying about to don their costumes. Several parents were assisting and a busy, hushed excitement filled the room. I glanced around to see how everyone was coming along and my eyes were drawn in shock to a little girl standing stark naked in the middle of the room. She apparently thought she needed to take everything off in order to put the costume on. I began rushing to her aid, thankful that everyone else seemed so consumed with their own projects that they hadn’t noticed. But just before I arrived at her side, a little boy who was sitting on the floor near her looked up and very matter-of-factly asked, “Are you coming as a baby?” Oh, my goodness. It was the sweetest, most innocent thing. Her situation was quickly remedied and the day continued without incident.
Masks are fun. But nakedness is better. Let me explain before you make wild assumptions. Too many of us wear a mask on a regular basis and fail to show who we truly are. Although we need to have discernment about how much we reveal to whom, it is important to live with integrity and honesty. This has been a journey for me because I really want people to like me. With age comes wisdom, they say, and I’ve gotten better at accepting the fact that not everyone will like me. I’m lying to myself and others when I try to be someone I am not. I detest lies, so telling them has never been an issue for me. But I wonder if remaining silent when I should speak up is a form of dishonesty? Have I hidden behind a mask when I’m afraid of what people may think if I stand up for what I believe? Perhaps lying isn’t just telling untruths. It is being dishonest in any form. Nakedness is obviously a vulnerable condition, but can I bear my true inner self and remain unashamed? I think there are two dishonest behaviors at work here. One stems from wishing you could be different than who God made you to be. Trying to be someone I’m not is only going to cause me inner strife. The second dishonest behavior is hiding who I am or what my convictions are when I know deep inside I should be showing my true self or speaking up.
Let’s leave the wearing of masks for dress-up play and seek to be honest with ourselves and others. If there is something in my life causing me to want to hide, I should deal with it–confessing my sin and making things right. If I am trying to be like someone else, I should confess that seed of envy and remember that a loving God created me to be the best me I can be. And no one else can be that. In our hearts, may we live lives that are naked and unashamed–just like that little girl in the middle of my classroom years ago.
“The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.” –Proverbs 11:3
