I ran into a coworker recently and she asked how I was doing. I just smiled and told her that I was doing okay. She looked at me and said, "you are always so happy, you never seem to have any problems." When I heard her comment, I was surprised, I didn't know what to say, I just smiled some more and nodded along. Now thinking about it, it was an interesting comment to hear. It is true that I have many things to give thanks for, but I am not without problems. No one go through life without facing hardship, frustration, or sadness. Everyone at some point of their life faces pain, loss, judgment, disappointment, and everything else that makes us feel like we've fallen into a hole and we just can't get out. This kind of got me thinking though, why would my coworker make this comment? Why does she think that I never have any problems? Then I realized, it's because she is only seeing the mask I'm wearing on the outside. My coworker has only seen the smile on my face, but she has never seen the pain I was feeling behind that smile. She has only heard the happy things I tell her, but she has never heard my cries at night. She has only seen the mask I wear on the outside, but not the raw "me" underneath.
All of us wear masks. We all wear masks for different reasons, and we wear different masks with different people. With some people, we wear thinner masks that hid our emotions and frustrations, with other people, we wear a thicker mask, a mask that mostly hides who we are and how we feel.
We all wear masks for different reasons. Maybe it's because we don't want people to worry about us, or maybe it's a trust issue, or maybe we are hiding our insecurities and our brokenness as a means of self preservation. Whatever the reason maybe, we all do it, we all put on our masks to hid our real self and our real emotions.
The truth of the matter is, sometimes in life, it's necessary to wear a mask. Sometimes we do have to keep a smile plastered to our face in order to function in our day to day life. We don't always have the luxury to break down that mask and expose our raw self and our true emotions. If we explain to every single person that ask us how we are doing how we truly feel, we would never be able to get anything done.
At the same time though, it's exhausting wearing a mask. It's exhausting pretending to be something we are not, it's tiring pretending everything is going well when it really feels like our whole world is falling apart. We all know that wearing make up all the time is damaging for the skin, the skin needs to breath and be exposed to air. I think our real self and our real emotions are the same, they need to come out from the hiding once a while too. We need to vent out our frustrations, we need to cry out our pains, and we need to talk about our disappointments. I guess what I'm trying to say is, we all need those few special people in our life that we can take our mask off in front of. Those people who we can confide in and trust with our deepest secret and pain. They are the very people who won't stop caring about us even though they see just how broken we truly are underneath that mask. This is what a true friendship is, and I am so thankful for the special people in my life. C.S. Lewis once said:
“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.” Thank you my friends for adding meaning and value to my life. It says in Ecclesiastes,
"Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken." Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
We know we can take our mask off in front of our friends. But you know who else you can remove your mask in front of? That's right, Jesus! He knows exactly who you are and what you are all about. He knows your passions, your hopes, your fears, your pain, your sadness, your disappointments, and so much more. He will never judge the person underneath that mask because He knows you, every bit of you. Even the things you are too fearful or embarrassed to tell anyone else, He knows it all. King David wrote in Psalm,
"O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise, you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord." Psalms 139:1-4
Our Lord knows each one of us intimately like He knows David. He knows our thoughts and our heart. One song I've been listening to recently is a song called Better than a hallelujah. The lyrics of the songs reminds us that we can pour out our miseries to God, and that the honest cry of a broken heart is better than a hallelujah to Him. So let us not hide behind our mask in front of Jesus, He wants us to show our brokenness and pour out our heart before Him. So come before Jesus, confide in Him, take off you mask and get real with Him!
Amy Grant - Better than a Hallelujah
