Underneath the Mask

Society is one giant masquerade ball, with everyone acting like everything is OK. We hide under our masks, parading around and projecting the image that we're fine. That we have it all together. That we're peachy-keen and problem-free.

But underneath the mask, we're hurting. We're in disarray. Marriages are falling apart, finances are crumbling, faith is fading. And yet we choke back the tears and put on a smile so that to others we can appear - in our own prideful way - to be without blemish.

We do it because we don't other people to think we're struggling - even though we are. We think that if we sweep our problems under the rug, visitors won't notice the dust spilling out from underneath. We're ashamed for people to know a certain part of us, for fear that we wouldn't in fact be accepted, baggage and all - even though we all carry some pretty heavy luggage.

Putting on this facade, living this lie, can be exhausting. Many times there's nothing we could want more than to let down our guard, to be open, to reveal what's hidden, to relax in the comfort of knowing that we are accepted despite a sketchy past, a present struggle or any other skeleton in our respective closet.

But that's the beauty of Christ.

We don't have to have it all together. We don't even have to act like we do.

We can come as we are:

In shambles. Exposed. Vulnerable.
Hanging by a thread. Barely there. Fading.
Weak, worn or weary.
Battered, bruised or broken.
Torn, tempest-tossed or troubled.

I can come just as I am. And He will welcome me with open arms...every. single. time.

Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28, NASB)

He wants to be our answer. He wants to be the one we turn to. That's why He died for us.

And the best thing is, when we come to Christ, when we give up and lay our struggles or our troubles at His feet, we need go no further. We no longer need to seek fulfillment or acceptance from any other source. We no longer need to try so furiously to scrub our own selves clean.

We no longer need to wear a mask.

In Christ alone can we rest.

Even when Especially when it's hard for us to accept answers because we still have so many questions of our own...
Even when Especially when the chains of an addiction can be so hard to break, despite our own determination...
Even when Especially when the monsters of our past threaten to break out of hiding and defeat us...

He is enough.