I stopped at 7-11 the other day and there was a sign on the front door requiring customers to take off their masks while in the store. It's obviously a crime prevention issue, (notice I'm not saying WHICH 7-11 in which town, but if you live in Kamloops, you can use your imagination as to which one it is...)
I've been thinking about the message though. What if we put signs up at church saying "Masks are not allowed inside the church" or if we put them on homes "masks are not allowed within relationships" or if what if we put them at the entrance to our towns and cities... remove masks while in Kamloops, Vancouver, New York, etc... (notice the subtle but obvious connection of Kamloops to world class cities...)
Since the days of Adam in the garden of Eden we have been covering ourselves to hide what we didn't want people to see. Hiding has made our lives and relationships more complicated and painful. Hiding puts distance between us and those around us and most importantly, us and God. As an experienced (and former) "hider", I can tell you that hiding is a short term solution to a long term issue. The craziest thing of all is that those closest to you KNOW that you are hiding or at the very least suspect that you are because in most cases they are doing the same.
There are two obvious solutions to this scenario. On the one hand, we can continue hiding, because after all everyone else is doing it... OR we can come out of the darkness into the light. Coming into the light seems kind of scary. Someone very close to me described it as the fear of being hated for what you really are. And yet, I can tell you that LOVE covers a multitude of sins and coming out from hiding was the best thing I ever did.
There's something very liberating about not living in the shadows "hoping" that your secret remains a secret. Embracing grace and freely admitting that you aren't all things takes a huge weight off your shoulders and allows you to be real in a very real way. Admitting you have "clay feet" takes a ton of pressure off you.
Try it ... you'll like it...
Tim
1 comment:
We were reading Poe in a class this week, one story was about a minister who wore a black veil over his face, refusing to take it off even on his death bed, to represent all the sin and socially taboo things in a person's life. In the story, people didn't want to be faced with that stuff on a daily basis and all his friends abandoned him. It wasn't a happy story, but it was interesting.
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