What Are You Hiding Behind???

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you wake up Monday morning and instantly wish that a) you were still asleep and b) it was Friday night?

I've had one of those weeks.

The problem is, even when the proverbial hits the fan and all you want to do is crawl back into bed, pull the covers over your head and pretend that the rest of the world doesn't exist, life continues to go on around you.

As a result of this many of us have to take a deep breath, pull ourselves together and move on. But how?

Many of us put on a mask, or veneer of normality on the outside when we are around others, while on the inside we are a mess, with so many thoughts and emotions rolling around just wanting to escape.

And so we feel exhausted at the end of the day when we finally get home and can take that mask off and be exactly how we are feeling.

Masks can be good. In Ice Hockey people wear masks to protect their face from serious injury/disfigurement. Superheroes wear masks to protect their identity and those they care about.

Sometimes masks are fun, they allow us to pretend we are someone or something different and we can let our hair down without fear of what people think of us.

But masks can be bad. Sometimes we wear a mask (figuratively speaking) so that people don't see who we really are or what we are really thinking.

This week, as i have struggled to deal with the stuff going on in my own life, i have found myself reaching for a mask to cover my inner feelings and maintain the character i usually portray to those around me, strong, confident, energetic, joyful.

The thing is, even though this is what i am trying to look like, there are some people that still noticed that things weren't right and asked me if i was ok; to which if i was honest, the answer was no!

As i was thinking about this stuff last night on the way home from a meeting in Melbourne, i began to wonder if this is what we sometimes do when it comes to God stuff.

We pretend that we are ok, we keep doing things on the outside, hoping that no one will notice that things are not ok inside.

But the thing is, that even though people may only see what is on the outside, God can see whats going on on the inside. God knows our deepest thoughts, dreams, hopes, desires, fears and failings. And He loves us anyway.

While i struggled to deal with all that has been going on over the last week, God has been there. When i've screamed out WHY? He was there. When all i wanted to do was get away from everyone around me and retreat to the safety of solitude, and couldn't, God gave me the strength i needed to push on.

Now, my problems, while hugely significant in my life, didn't rally rate on the scale of the world around me. This week countless people have died in wars and from famine, I heard this morning of over 100 babies in Kazakhstan that were infected with HIV because doctors, nurses, and hospital officials were negligent in their jobs. We have global warming, floods, droughts and countless other problems that occur around us every day. But it is so easy to get caught up in our own problems that the rest of the world seems to fade away.

Sometimes we need to take off our mask, admit that things are not ok (some people call this confession), make the necessary changes (sometimes this is called repentance) and walk towards our future, trusting God to go ahead of us and prepare the way, one step at a time.

As I overheard someone say yesterday; "Life sucks, and it's not funny."

Bad stuff happens, even to good people, but God is faithful. Even when we don't know why stuff happens, we need to trust that God will work all things for the good of those who love Him, and follow Him into our future!!

As my old high school motto says: "In Faith and Hope and Love."

I say: "Amen"