Are you hiding behind a mask? No, I don't mean the kind that some people choose to wear at Halloween or a costume ball. The mask I am talking about is one that many of us put on to hide who we really are. I know what it is like to wear masks. I have worn many over my life time. We hide our past hurts and regrets behind masks hoping people we get close to won't see them and won't make us take them off. The only problem with that is, at some time life forces us to take them off or they fall off when we least expect them too and then the real us is exposed! Some of us have worn so many masks we have masks over masks and for us to remove them all is like peeling an onion. There is layer after layer that we must remove to get to the core of who we really are. It's a process, it's all part of the journey of reaching your full potential.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.   Galatians 5:1

Many of us grown ups wear masks everyday. Depending on the occasion or circumstance we throw on a mask to fit our need. We have become afraid of letting people see the real us. We are afraid of letting someone see our shortcomings out of the fear that they will not like or love us. At work we may throw on a mask of authority and power in order to seem in control. At home we may throw on a mask of contentment, a mask of “everything is okay,” out of fear our spouse may not love someone with problems. At church we throw on a mask of self-righteousness and pride, a mask of "I have this God stuff in my life together, so don't ask me how I am doing. I don't need any help; I don't want any fellowship with you people that are down and out. I am okay." Maybe we even have a mask of rationalization that we put on in compromising situations, a mask that shows the boys on the golf course "I am really just like you; this church stuff is just for Sundays."

On and on we go, shuffling our masks on and off from situation to situation, until one day our masks fail us. No matter how good you are at this game, eventually cracks develop from all the wear and tear of changing masks. As the cracks develop people start seeing the real you in-between the cracks. Some may even reach out to help, but that mask of pride, which has now become a prison of pride, will not allow anyone inside. All the masks will become prisons of guilt, resentment, self-centeredness and on and on. The prisons can become solitary confinement, locking out even God. In addition you lose your identity. You lose the core you, the real you.

If you find yourself in a prison built in your mind, built by your actions, built by losing the real you somewhere behind these masks. I urge you to pour your heart out to God and cast the masks upon Him. It's time to find the core you and to let others inside to help you. Let a pastor or Christian friend inside your walls to help you up.

If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!  Ecclesiastes 4:10

It takes along time to build these prisons out of masks, so remember it will take time to tear them down. But I can guarantee that you will never get out, if you don't start today.