Stranger to myself

"Most of us remain strangers to ourselves, hiding who we are, and ask other strangers, hiding who they are, to love us.” - Leo Buscaglia

When Jesus called us to love our neighbours as we love ourselves, he assumed we actually love ourselves to some degree. This is the interesting part, because many of us still struggle to love ourselves as we should, and this may stem from the fact that we are still 'strangers to ourselves.' 

Thought: Do we truly know ourselves?

Which part of our inner lives do we not love?

Living in Grace

D3LM3

Which mask today? Why we choose to wear masks to hide our true selves.

I jumped into the car the other morning worrying that I had forgotten my mask. I needn't have worried as there were 3 or 4 masks lying around inside the car, some needing to be disposed of, but others ready for a wash and another day in business. As I reversed out the driveway this thought struck me: 

"Is this how we start our days albeit a little subconsciously? We think about who were are going to meet and then decide which mask we are going to wear? I am off to work so I need to put the "I'm all together" mask on. Or I am off to church so let me put the "deeply spiritual" mask on? Or we are going out to be with acquaintances so the most suitable mask will be the "I am fine" mask. Is this how we live our lives?"

The trouble with living like this is that we get caught up in changing the masks all the time, until eventually we wear the wrong mask at an awkward time and suddenly we feel exposed. We can't keep up the pretence forever.

I am thankful that God knows who we are even before we put the masks on and that Jesus doesn't require us to pretend when we come to him. We are invited to come 'as we are' and God will embrace us in that moment. 

Joshua 7:19 - “My son, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and honour him. Tell me what you have done; do not hide it from me.”

Genesis 28:15 - "I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

Living in Grace

D3LM3

Duplicity

"The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity." - Proverbs 11:3

I believe that one our greatest struggles is be our true selves around other people. There are too many occasions where we live in duplicity - we have one personality (mask) for work, or church, or certain people and then we have another personality when we are with family or even by ourselves. 

We need to remember that God knows us at our worst and yet He still invites us to be part of his Kingdom. We can't fool the Lord - he knows all our pretenses and all the masks that we wear. Coming to Christ with all our honest struggles and brokenness is the only way to approach the throne of God's grace. 

"We are only falsehood, duplicity, contradiction; we both conceal and disguise ourselves from ourselves." - Blaise Pascal

“The easiest thing to be in the world is you. The most difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be. Don't let them put you in that position.” - Leo Buscaglia

Living in Grace
D3LM3

Wearing wisdom like a Face Mask

Everywhere we go in these times of Coronavirus it is important for us to wear our face masks. Despite all the debate about their effectiveness, they do play a vital role in stopping the virus from spreading - and they should teach us to stop touching our mouths with germ-filled hands :)

In a different kind of way, Solomon advices us to wear wisdom like a scarf around our necks (or maybe our mouths) - he says we should wrap ourselves from head to foot in the beauty of God's wisdom.

Good friend, follow your father’s good advice;
    don’t wander off from your mother’s teachings.
Wrap yourself in them from head to foot;
    wear them like a scarf around your neck.
Wherever you walk, they’ll guide you;
    whenever you rest, they’ll guard you;
    when you wake up, they’ll tell you what’s next.
For sound advice is a beacon,
    good teaching is a light,
    moral discipline is a life path. (Proverbs 6:20-23 - Message)

And so the challenge is there before us - we need to let wisdom guide us where-ever we walk.
When we rest, let us allow godly wisdom to be our guards. And even when we wake up during time of lockdown, let us call out to Wisdom to guide us.

Wisdom from Jesus Christ will be a beacon of hope and a light for our paths.

“Does it make sense to pray for guidance about the future if we are not obeying in the thing that lies before us today? How many momentous events in Scripture depended on one person's seemingly small act of obedience! Rest assured: Do what God tells you to do now, and, depend upon it, you will be shown what to do next.” -  Elisabeth Elliot

Living in Grace
D3LM3

Two of me ...

I was helping Josh brush his teeth this morning when he suddenly said, "Look, I see two Daddies?" I wasn't sure what he was getting at, but then noticed he was pointing at the mirror and then at me - two daddies - one in real life and one in the mirror!

How true his little statement is! There are two of me. The person the world sees and the 'real' me. How different the two 'daddies' can sometimes be. We all wear masks - we all try to portray ourselves to be better than we truly are. The real struggle in our Christian walk is to allow Jesus to take the 'real' me and to transform him into the person I was created to be. God knows our potential and he is willing to chip away at all our rough edges, making us into his masterpiece.

Jeremiah 17:9 - "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?"

Who are you?

Living in Grace
D3LM3