Regardless of how you feel about Halloween, for many people it marks a chance to put on a costume and engage the world in ways they might not ordinarily. People enjoy the opportunity to express their personality in costumes. Masks and disguises play a key role in this annual celebration.
But masking up isn’t something people do only on Halloween. We might not wear literal masks other days of the year, but we do put on identities to navigate the different arenas of our lives.
Sometimes—often, perhaps—we disguise parts of ourselves or try to wear faces to the world that aren’t quite our true selves. It can be uncomfortable, but the world is a scary place. We mask up to cope.
We can even be tempted to do this “masking up to cope” with God. I labored for years in performing and people-pleasing. It was a desperate attempt to create for myself the assurance I was accepted and loved by Him and others. The harder I worked at putting on the best face, the more resentful, discouraged, and cynical I became.
I had learned many things about God wrong, and I could not seem to stop the treadmill of being busy serving and striving for His affection. The world’s loud voices affirmed my hectic pace and the people pleasing perspectives I had been trained in from childhood. I had bought the lies that I had to earn my place in order to get affection or admiration.
But despite all the labor and the layers and layers of lies separating me from receiving and living in deep relationship with God, He never stopped wooing me. He kept putting His messages of love and acceptance, messages about His truth in front of me.
Many of those messages came through books. I cannot overstate the power that the writings and words of men and women of faith have had on my life. The right words are a powerful tool of redemption, reorientation, and refreshment.
“…and a word spoken in due season, how good is it!” declares Proverbs 15:23 (KJV).
Indeed, how good is the right word spoken at the right time. It was through books I read in the early years of homeschooling my kids that God began to show me just how much I was living out of my own resources and how little I was living in His. Through reading and messages I heard in community with believers, God opened my eyes to truth about how much He loved me and how freely He gave that love to me.
Maybe that is why I enjoy so much the privilege of writing and speaking about Him and the reality and accessibility of intimate relationship with Jesus. It is probably why I am so excited about the devotional I wrote that is about to launch into the world.
The core message and theme of Fully Known, Fully Loved: A 30-Day Journey of Identity in Christ is (obviously) identity. The book invites you to rest in the unshakable truth that you are redeemed, restored, and renewed in Jesus. Each day there is a Scripture reading and reflection to remind you of a critical facet of your identity in Christ. You’ll find simple tools—journal prompts, prayers, and affirmations—to help you interact with truth each day in ways that will shape your soul in the ways that good words have the power to do.
One of the most exciting things to me about this devotional is that these truths never get old, and each of us can benefit from the reminders in this book. Whether you’re a seeker, newer to faith, or a mature believer longing to reconnect with God on a deeper level, you will find something here that will meet you.
We can move from simply knowing about God’s love to learning to truly live from it. God has abundant love and great delight in you…yes, He delights in you! Our true identities—the ways God designed each of us uniquely to be—are revealed when we live in union with Christ. It is good to be reminded of how He views us. We can have wrong ideas about that, and those wrong ideas can lead us live out of wrong identities in our relationship with Him, just like I did for so many years.
Maybe you will be donning a costume for some seasonal festivities this weekend. Maybe you don’t like Halloween at all. Wherever you fall on that spectrum, I invite you to spend a little time with your own heart this weekend and reflect on the theme of identity and disguises.
Jesus is the safest place in the universe to unmask and be real. I know that is really hard for some people, so I am praying as I type this that you will be bold and courageous as you consider these questions:
- Are there areas in your life where you feel you have to disguise yourself?
- What sorts of “best face” masks do you wear? What circumstances draw you to “mask up”?
- Are you tempted to wear a mask when it comes to engaging with God? How so?
- Could you benefit by a fresh look at truth about your true identity in Jesus?
If you answered yes to that last question, plan to order your own copy of Fully Known, Fully Loved, soon to be available at Amazon. It should be available between November 12-15. You can request to be notified of its launch here .