If you don’t know this about me, I love stupid funny movies.
Happy Gilmore was a great movie to me.
From the beginning you know who Happy is.
He has an anger problem and you know it.
He doesn’t mask that he has a short fuse, but always apologizes and recovers in the end.
You grow to love him.
Maybe it’s because you actually know who he is.
So much of our life we end up masking who we are.
This honestly (in my 27 years of living) shows up the most Sunday morning in the Church.
There is a senior minister who told me at least 2 or 3 Sundays a month, him and his wife are fighting on the way to Church.
He told me once he hits the Church parking lot, they change.
When people ask him how’s it going?
He told me he would suck it up and say, “It’s going great (With a big smile on his face), how are you doing?”
In his version of faith the minister always has to be happy to the entire congregation, upbeat no matter the fact him and his wife were fighting on the way to Church.
What’s your take on this?
Is it alright for a minister to mask who he is or what’s going on in his life?
Would Jesus have ever mask what he was about or tell other to mask who he is or what he did?
Yes. Matthew 12:16…
“Warning them not to tell who he was.”
Why would Jesus do this?
Jesus was healing people, giving them cure’s to what people couldn’t be healed in.
It actually fulfills what is said in Isaiah 42:1-4 about Jesus.
Jesus had a very distinct reason for doing this.
In Mark, he tells people the same thing and instead they went and told everyone.
Therefore Jesus couldn’t go inside a city again because of the crowd that followed him.
Why do we, especially Christians have to mask who we are?
I once heard a minister I respect so much say, “If you honestly knew the thoughts running through my head I would be fired on the spot.”
Being a minister is tricky with being real.
You can’t share everything because people will twist and react differently because of what you share.
Am I happy about this?
No!
But it’s the truth, people would hold things against me.
Christians are the best at having the shield.
Christians show they are trying to be more holy and put up a shield around themselves so nobody can see who they truly are.
Sad but true.
Jesus had a purpose for warning people not to tell who he was.
What’s our excuse?
I try to be as real as possible almost to a fault.
Like I said, I am trying to work on my tongue, here’s me not doing a good job…
I once went up to the Hameltime’s at the end of Church and told them they left their vodka at my house.
I did this for a quick laugh and to see one of their faces turn red (BTW, their was no alcohol involved, anyone that knows me knows I don’t drink).
It was funny, but there is a cost.
I did it in front of their parents.
So when their parents ask, who was that?
They would say who I was.
Not a statement I want people to remember about me, but that’s what I did.
I still need to learn how to censor myself.
The only way Christianity is going to change is if we stop focusing on living a holier life for show and start realizing we are a sinner and will make mistakes, it’s alright to show some of those mistakes.
I have been blessed to be a part of some great small groups.
Honestly, even in a great small group, it takes a while to release the shield.
At South, I was in a great small group with the Hameltimes, Simmons, Housepian’s, Kitchels, Banfields and Crandells.
At Ionia, I was in a small group with the Martins and the Daltons.
You can tell going into a small group everyone starts out with the shield.
At some point we broke through the shield and got to know people for real.
For this reason, we were able to have some awesome small groups.
Why do we wear that shield so tight to our skin?
God has a reason for not telling who he was, what’s our excuse?
The younger generation has the best ability to see people when they are being fake.
I see this through working with them.
Through kids, I have seen how parents have had drug and drinking problems to name a few.
If you go to these parents, they are so shielded they would be offended if you went up to them and said I know who you really are.
Christians will never bring people to Christ if we don’t take down the shield.
While nobody will know your struggles, but they will never get to know the real you.
I love Happy Gilmore for being real, showing his faults and working through them.
What’s our excuse for not showing who we are?
Being real is being a Christian.
At times I fail miserably at this.
I need to change what about you?
Have a great day.
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