The Masks We Wear

I greeted a friend of mine last night and asked him how he was doing. He said, “I’m not doing very well. I’m sorry I just can’t say everything is fine, because everything isn’t fine.” I told him that it was okay that he wasn’t doing fine and I was glad he was honest with me. Sometimes it is easier to mask how we are really doing. Sometimes the mask has to come off.

This conversation made me think about all the masks we wear. We wear masks at our job. We try to hide our imperfections. We pretend we don’t have problems at home. We pretend we are more confident in our position than we really are.

We wear masks with our friends. We mask the debt we’ve incurred to pay for a lifestyle we can’t afford. We mask our insecurities. We pretend to be closer to certain friends than we really are so that they can help us achieve our goals or ambitions.

We wear masks at church. We argue all the way to Sunday service and paint on a smile on our way in. We pretend to be more spiritual, more put together, more mature in our faith than we really are. We fear that if anyone knew the real us, they would think less of us…so we mask our brokenness.

We wear masks at home. We pretend things are okay in our marriage when there is distance. We say nothing is wrong when our feelings are truly hurt. We don’t necessarily lie to our spouse; we just shade part of the truth. We don’t feel comfortable being our true self with our spouse because we are afraid of judgment or ridicule.

The thing about masks is that they never bring us closer to who we were created to be. Masks always make shallow what God has intended to be deep. Friendships. Marriages. Families. Churches. Everything in our lives get cheated when we choose to be fake.

It takes courage to live with no masks. What would happen if we stopped apologizing for being honest with each other and started expecting and accepting authenticity?  What if mask wearing were a thing of the past in your life?

How would your friendships be different?

How would your marriage be different?

How would your relationship with God be different?

Do you struggle with masking the real you in an area of your life?