‘Is it me baby, or just a brilliant disguise?’ – Bruce Springsteen, Brilliant Disguise
This one is all about integrity. We can fool many people with the masks we wear, even ourselves if we take the delusion far enough. If we fool others, we may say that no one is going to know. But that is not true. You will know, and you have to live with that. Everywhere we go we have to take ourselves with us. Keith Green sang many years ago that you can run to the end of the highway and not find what you’re looking for. People in 12 Step programs call it a geographical. The Pretenders also sang ‘let me inside you, into your room. I hear it’s lined with the things you don’t show’. Beautiful words of acceptance, love and the invitation to come in and be friends.
Such is the offer of Jesus. To broken people like us he says take off your masks and come and be healed. Jesus’ harshest words were for the hypocrites of his day, those who wore the masks and made out that they were far more holy than they really were. But Jesus saw right through them. He didn’t have time for their games. He sees right through us and wants to cut straight through the rubbish to the deepest parts of our soul, those parts where we often put on a brilliant disguise to hide our true selves, lest people find out what we are really like and reject us.
Who do you project to the world? Is the you that you project the real you? If not, what do we have to hide? What is the fear that underlies our hiding? When Jesus said he came to give us life he meant what he said. Soren Kirkegaard spoke of the leap of faith that everyone must make. If we take that leap of faith we will find that Jesus is waiting with outstretched arms.
