Discovering Who I Am, Healing, Peace, Words of Endurance
Face to Face-No Masks
Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did,
God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face!
They suddenly recognize that God
is a living, personal presence,
not a piece of chiseled stone.
And when God is personally present, a living Spirit,
that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete.
We’re free of it! All of us!
Nothing between us and God,
our faces shining with the brightness of his face.
And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah,
our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful
as God enters our lives and we become like him.
2 CORINTHIANS 3:16-18
I have only recently discovered that a major step in maturing is that I must discard the masks that I have developed and worn through the years. I did not honestly know that I wore any masks because through the years I have been more than open about my own personal struggles but the truth is that we all wear masks – all for different reasons.
I personally have developed these masks not only to protect myself from being truly known but to protect others and even to protect God from who I truly am. I have discovered that behind my mask of strength and confidence is a root of fear and self-doubt. Feeling shame and not wanting anyone to know this part of me I have used anger as a way of steering others away – enabling me to hide those fears of failure, inadequacy and frustration.
“That’s why revealing the origins of our masks is so important.
We need to see ourselves objectively within our story,
to see what drives the responses tripping us up.
Our controlling behavior is rarely random.
It’s triggered by unresolved junk,
and if we begin to understand the process of unresolved sin,
we may no longer react to each new provocation
like lemmings sprinting for the nearest cliff.
Our masks are a symptom, not a root cause,
a fever indicating a raging infection deep inside.
We must expose this dark dynamic compelling us to protect ourselves.”
THE CURE (JOHN LYNCH, BRUCE MCNICOL, BILL THRALL)
How freeing it is to know who I truly am does not need to be hidden in the dark behind a mask but it needs to be brought out into the light and the “brightness of His face “– fully exposed – so that I may be healed and “transfigured much like the Messiah.”
How awesome is it that “God removes the veil” – the masks – and there we are – “face to face” with Him! There is to be “nothing between us and God” and what is even more awesome is that He is “personally present” – we are fully known by Him – He knows us inside out and yet He still loves us. Oh how great and unfathomable is the Grace of God!
On the Journey with You,
Dave Dravecky