Masquerade Party

"For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires." Hebrews 4:12...."When you wear a mask, what ultimately gets masked is the power of Christ in your life." Ann Voskamp

Sometimes I think the greatest masquerade parties take place each week when the church comes together to "worship." There was a time in our culture that when people attended church, they wore their best clothing. For most, it was clothing they never wore any other time. This was so in my family, in those sporadic times when we tried to have some kind of church life. My brothers and I all wore sport coats, or even a suit. My mother would wear her nicest dresses and my father his only suit. The fact is, we never dressed this way for anything else. It was how we thought we should "look" in church. We weren't alone.

Though clothing styles have changed, our tendency is still to wear a "look" that only seems to come out when we're attending worship, or some other church related gathering. We tend to put forward an appearance that we think others expect of us, even what we think God expects of us. Like the clothing of my family, it's not what we look like the majority of our time. Sometimes it can be the result of being openly deceptive, but I think mostly it's because we think it's what others, especially the Father expects of us. We don't think we can be flawed people and still be followers of Christ. The result; we put on our masks, hoping to give the illusion of having it all together. And we end up with a masquerade party, but we never end up with real worship. The inability to be real and transparent with each other makes us unable to be real and transparent with Him. So the power of His Holy Spirit doesn't manifest in our lives or worship. We end up settling for warm fuzzies that are more about emotion than the Spirit. Voskamp's words become true. We mask His strength in our lives by insisting that we wear the ones we've created.

From the pulpit to the pew, and the platform to the floor, the need for true transparency and openness has never been greater. As the darkness increases around us, the results of it assault us within. We try to cope in our own strength, but we fail. And our feeling is that we're frauds. That if anyone knew how poorly we were handling life, marriage, parenting, and all that goes with these, they'd throw us out of the fellowship. We've bought the devil's lie. His Spirit tells us, if we'll listen, that in our weakness, we'll discover His strength. A strength greater than all of our flaws and all of the enemy's lies. The masks can come off as His power is unmasked and unleashed in our midst.

I'm beyond weary of masquerade parties. Are you? Let's dare to be unmasked and that we might be made whole....and free. Then the real party, the Kingdom party, can begin.

Blessings,