What if you throw away your masks and let people see the real you?
This week in the Dispatch:
Quick Hits: A new section of Dispatch
Another Malcolm Gladwell book
Two Awesome Marriage podcasts this week
Insights deals with the other masks in your life
This week’s Challenge
Final Thoughts can change your life
This Week’s Quick Hits
There is so much information every day on the Coronavirus but how do we know what is accurate and what is not? A good friend of mine who is one of the decision makers on COVID-19 policies at a large medical center recommended the podcast TWIV: This Week in Virology. It is science-based and seems to be way ahead of what we hear daily on the news. The four main hosts are knowledgeable and easy to listen to. I have been listening for a couple of weeks and I like what I hear.
There is a new Awesome Marriage YouVersion plan out: 7 Churches of Revelation. It is the first plan by Pastor Dylan Dodson of New City Church in Raleigh, NC.
I just started week two of Levi Lusko’s 40-day interactive journey Take Back Your Life. This is one of those books that can really make a difference in your life. It’s not too late to join us. Email me drkim@awesomemarriage.com to join in and share what God is teaching you.
Registration is open for our Online Affair Recovery Course featuring nine great speakers. This is a powerful course and you can view on demand.
Books
David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell
It’s no secret that I am a big fan of Malcolm Gladwell. David and Goliath was published in 2013 and gives us a variety of case studies of those with perceived disadvantages who gain victory over gigantic opponents or situations. The reviews when published were largely negative but I disagree. I found this book to be very enjoyable and full of great stories told as only Gladwell can tell them.
Podcast
Awesome Marriage
This week’s Awesome Marriage podcast is titled “Giving Yourself Grace.” Christina and I talk about what it means to give yourself grace, why we struggle to do that, and how that applies to your marriage.
Bonus Episode
This week we have two podcasts and the second is with my friend Joshua Rogers as we talk about his book Confessions of a Happily Married Man. Joshua shares openly and honestly about his first 10 years of marriage and what he has learned in his marriage journey so far. This is a great, encouraging, and helpful podcast. Don't miss it!
Insights
When I was a junior in high school, my youth group performed a skit called “Masks.” Today masks are an everyday part of our lives. But the masks in the skit were very different. These masks were the kind that people wear to protect themselves or to hide. As I was part of the skit, the dialogue haunted me. What masks did I wear? Who was I really? Was I the guy that everyone at church saw me as? Or was I the guy who liked to party on Friday and Saturday night? Did my mask protect me or just let me pretend to be someone that I was not? It was such a simple skit but I remember it like it was last Sunday.
Throughout my life there have been times that I have put on a mask. Maybe it was to impress someone or to keep someone else from seeing the real me. Whatever the reasons were, none of them were healthy. What about you? What masks have you worn in the past? Why did you wear them? What if you had not worn them?
I counseled a man in his mid-20s that had recently met a girl that he was head over heels in love with. She had everything that he had ever dreamed of in a woman to spend the rest of his life with. There was only one problem but it was huge! He had been wearing a mask since the day they met. He wanted to be who she wanted him to be instead of being himself. Now he was afraid to show her his real self. What if she did not like that person? His fear was that if he did not continue to wear his mask the relationship would end.
We wear masks because the opposite is being vulnerable and transparent and that scares us. With a mask, if someone does not like us, it is the mask they do not like and we can just change masks. If we are our real self and are vulnerable and transparent and they do not like us, that’s all we have. Yet that is exactly God’s plan. His plan is for each of us to be who He created us to be. Remember Genesis chapter 2? Remember Adam and Eve? Remember “naked and unashamed?” Being yourself and growing in your relationship with God is the perfect plan. What if you throw away your masks and let people see the real you? When you do that, I believe your relationships will be more genuine and much healthier and you will feel like the weight of the world was just lifted from your shoulders. Masks are really heavy!
Challenge
What is one mask that you are wearing now? Why?
Will you take the risk today and throw that mask away forever?
Final Thought
When God looks at you, do you know what He sees? He sees a son or daughter that He could not love more. What keeps you from embracing God’s unconditional love for you today? Pray that God will help you see yourself through His eyes today and in all the future todays!
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