Taking Off The Mask

Christmas has ended for some, and the excitement or dread of the New Year is imminently upon us. During the last few days of a year, most people, even if only for a few minutes, reflect on the year gone by.

They remember the pain or joy experienced, the rugged or easy road traveled throughout the past months, weeks and days of the year that now fade into the distance. For most people good and bad was quite balanced for their year gone by. They experienced some happy times and some sad times but nothing was too much. For most people that’s quite ok, they have put it into a folder and labelled it “Life”.

Others experienced untold blessings this past year, whether they received riches or married the love of their life or had a healthy son or daughter born to them, this year flew them to cloud nine and they have not quite come down yet.

For some though this year was nothing but a preview of hell on earth, some might even say it was hell itself. They were the recipients of unimaginable pain, they wore the shoes that no one wants to put on, the burden that no one wants to carry is upon their backs and it’s weighing them down more and more each passing day.

These hurting people walk among us each day and have been for years, masking their pain in many different ways and seeking to deal with the hurt in their own way. For them a new year is just an addition of time to morn or cry and hurt, more days in which to wear the mask to cover their real face from the world. Some of us get worse as the years go by, as we seek to get what’s wrong behind the mask fixed by using the wrong methods and so sticking ourselves deeper into problems.

A boy eats cake and dirties his mouth, cake all over his face. He now has to interact with others but instead of dealing with the cake all over his face he blocks it with his hand while talking to others. Keeping the issue of the cake on his mind even while talking to others he seeks to handle the situation by wrong means like talking oil and trying to wash off his face, which of course only makes things worse.

Many would say the boy was just dumb. Anyone would know what to do in that situation but that’s many times the bad decisions we make when seeking to handle our pain. We try to fix a broken heart with alcohol and end up being alcoholics, we try to fix the longing for a father figure with the first man that comes along and end up being hurt even greater.

Jesus while on earth encountered a woman who if she were in our times, could be the queen of a carnival band for she had a great mask and she wore it well. On meeting Jesus at the water well they discussed different things but what stood out through all their discussions was the fact that Jesus was able to see behind her mask He knew her exact need. This intrusion shocked the woman so much so that she went into the town spreading it abroad and saying come meet a man that told me all the things I did. He told me my true problems and I never told him a word of them. Jesus didn’t just identify the woman’s problem, he offered to fix it, he said I would give you water and you will never thirst again.

On the physical, a claim like that is hard to understand. What kind of water can you give me that will cause me to never feel thirsty? Even so in our situations we can’t see someone anymore who can come and fix our problems so that it never bothers us again after we have lived with it for so long, this theory seems impossible. The woman at the well found it impossible too. She had used the fix of men for so long. Even the men that belonged to others and yet found no answer to her problems. Jesus offered the fix of all fixes.

People in our day use many “fixes” as well, whether it is the fix of money or sex or drugs, maybe partying is your thing, whatever is the way or ways you use to get away from your issues. Christ has come offering the fix of all fixes. The fix that will cause you to never need another temporary fix. Just like the woman at the well he knows exactly where you hurt so why not for this New Year allow Him to handle what lies behind, so we can start taking off the mask.

Written by :

Adesola Stewart

 

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