Monday, September
25, 2017
Your commandments give me understanding; no wonder I hate
every false way of life. Psalm 119:104(NLT)
The
sociology professor held up the book we were going to study…and an ominous
thought crossed my mind…it’s going to
be a long 16 weeks! The book (at
times) was semi-interesting, but really difficult to digest. I’m not sure whether the problem with digesting the author’s ideas was
due to the writer’s style or my discomfiting realization that the ideas
presented by the author were too-close-to-home!
The book, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life,[2]
used the metaphor of stage performance to “explain” how we conduct our lives in
the presence of others. The suggestion
to the reader was that, like players on a stage in Shakespearean times, actors
wore masks to represent the different characters they were playing. The number of roles one person could play was
limited only by how many masks you could hold in your hand (and, I presume,
whether you were schizophrenic enough to suppress multiple personalities while wearing
only one mask at a time).
I have to
admit that the idea of people not being honest with you was new to me. Being just 24 years old at the time, I was
appalled at the thought that people would lie to you. (I was something of a late-bloomer when it
comes to human relationships).
In
retrospect – and after 45 more years of interaction with people – I suspect the
author was onto something; not everything that glitters is actually gold, and
not every word that proceeds from a person’s mouth will stand close
scrutiny. Chalk it up to expediency,
creativity, or Adam’s sin in the Garden; people have been lying to each other
since the Serpent schooled Eve in how to get around the truth!
The
Psalmist presents a different, refreshing perspective: hating
any false way of life. And how different it is than what we
experience in our culture every day. The
Psalm writer suggests a life where, under the instruction of God’s Word and
ways, you put all the masks you’re tempted to wear in the recycle bin and go
with what your Creator gave you. You live
an authentic life.
Think of
the benefits:
·
Never
being caught in a lie
·
Never
having to worry about keeping your story line straight because truth never
changes
·
Only
having friends who will accept the real you, because that’s what they get every
day…(incidentally, once people get over the shock of hearing truth in a false
culture, they’re very attracted to it…truth brings hope)
·
Never
having that queasy feeling in the pit of your stomach when you finally get
around to praying…because you’ve been living authentically, not living a lie
·
…and
so on.
For You Today
You’ve got
a choice today…put on the masks and juggle the half-truths you use to make sure
you get what you want, even though in the end you’ll have stuff, and a
self-made false image of what people think of you……or……you can lay the masks
down and live the uncluttered and uncomplicated way of truth – an authentic
life!
Just
thinking about that helps me understand why Jesus said the truth will set you free!
You chew on
that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!
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