I want to get this off my chest. I hate wearing a mask. It is uncomfortable. It hurts my ears. It makes my face itch. Seriously they are just annoying. By the way this is not a post about the merits of wearing a mask or not. I am not a medical doctor and although I may have opinions about wearing a mask, and its ability to make one safer, no one cares what I think on the matter, nor should they.
I wear a mask in public because I am willing to do my part to make others feel/actually be safe. I don’t have a real problem with making others feel safe when I am out. What I hate most is I lose the ability to to share hope with a smile. I miss being able to walk around the store I am in and share some joy through a facial expression. Share it with a mom and young child who is acting up. To share a smile with an old couple who are bickering about what kind of lunch meat to get. I just want to spread a little joy and this mask is preventing that.
Our world today is full of people wearing masks. We wear the mask of patriotism, the mask of having it all together, the mask of of liberalism, or the mask of I am more enlightened because I don’t use hateful terms. We wear masks by only posting pictures of all our kids smiling while we have created at home class rooms. On facebook, and twitter today we can wear the mask of righteous anger…(far too much of that today especially if you live in Michigan) We like to wear masks and it really shows.
So here is our challenge. Maybe before Jesus and each other we can find a way to take off these masks. We can show who we are in life and in Christ. We can stop hiding behind masks of hate, and perfection. We can show are flaws and run to the arms of the one who save and makes us new. So take off the mask, share a smile, share joy, share Jesus. Our world needs us to take off the masks.
P.S. for now I will be wearing the real mask and not taking that off but those other masks are going to come off God willing.
17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self,[f] which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Ephesians 4:17-32 ESV
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