insta # 14 : masks

This is a continuation from a series over on ichleibe.blogspot.com, in which I reflected on thoughts inspired by old instagram posts (@ich_leibe). I'm condensing blogs because keeping things on that url was silly. 

Do you ever feel like you've got a mask on?

This question has for sure been asked a thousand times - and the general response is: take off your mask, don't hide your true self from the world - be yourself and everyone should love everyone else!

I guess I regard this as true, though popular culture has made it ooze cheese on occasion.

But I still wear a mask fairly often.

Sometimes people wear masks for personal comfort - superheroes wear masks so that they can go about everyday life like semi-normal people. Some masks are practical for safety - keeping out disease or bad air or dust.

The same can be true of metaphorical masks. Not all masks are wrongfully deceptive; some are more like filters - through which you view the same image, but in a better light or with selective coloring. Choosing which filter to use on one's personality takes judgement, wisdom, and God's help - what I wish to see is Christ as my filter, every day.

I believe in honesty. I love having a person or group of people to whom I can go and be myself with them. I can laugh, and cry. I can tell lame jokes, I can speak my mind. I can be tired or happy or hungry or angry and get an accurate reflection from those around me. Not like the hall of funhouse mirrors that meeting a new or unfamiliar group of people can feel like.

A question to ponder, as I am going to consider it as well: in what situations, groups or circumstances do you wear a mask on your personality? How do you change as you interact with different people?

If you follow God, how (if at all) do you change when you approach Him? Should you? How can you be truly honest with God, who, after all, sees your heart as it truly is anyway?