Unmasked – Just as I Am
Psalm 139:2–4 (NIV)
2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely.
In this day of debates over whether we have to wear masks or not, it is interesting that too often we hide behind another kind of mask around people. This is not a literal mask but the masks which hide our true selves before others, because we are afraid to expose who we really are, what we really think, because if people knew who we really are they would laugh at us, make fun of us, reject us. Or we put masks on to cover our hurt and pain, not letting on to others that we are weak, broken, or damaged. Or we wear masks to make us look stronger or more able than we really feel like inside. There is even a condition I’ve heard recently called “Imposters Syndrome” where people feel like they are an imposter. The accolades or success they have received are not deserved, they are really not that good. They are just bluffing others. This causes significant doubts about their abilities and whether they can keep it up.
Masks allow us to pretend to be someone we are not. Which can be exhausting and create emotional distances between ourselves and others. We wonder whether people only like us or respect us for the person whom we project, rather than who we really are on the inside.
And yet as Psalm 139:2-3 reminds us, we can be our true selves around God. We don’t need to wear masks, to pretend we are someone we are not, to posture with God, because he already knows everything about us. He knows our thoughts, and what we are going to say before we say it. At first this may sound disconcerting, because we cannot hide anything from God, he knows our bad thoughts as well as our good ones. He knows our secret sin. And yet the Scriptures remind us that God loves us for who we are because he created us to be exactly who we are. There is nothing that can separate us from his love (Romans 8:31-39). While God doesn’t love our sin, which separates us from him, yet he still loves us. We can come to him “just as I am” as the old hymn and new song by Jason Crabb reminds us.
Are you bringing your full self to God, warts and all, knowing you are loved unconditionally? Are you sharing with him what is truly on your heart, your concerns and frustrations, since he already knows what they are (and yet as a loving Father, he wants to hear from you)? Are you giving to him that which you have no control over anyways and trust him to take care of in his perfect way (like other people’s opinions of you, especially as they get to know the real you)? Lastly, are you bringing your brokenness and sin to him so that you can find forgiveness and healing through Jesus who paid the penalty for our sin on the cross and is our Healer?
You can do so with confidence that God will not reject you but welcome you and receive you into his loving arms.