Say No to Hypocrisy
Don't just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good.
Romans 12:9 (NLT)
Hypocrisy, pretending to be something you aren't, are issues we all struggle with at times. Last year Becky and I saw the stage production of "The Lion King" at the Wharton Center in Lansing. The costumes were spectacular and the actors performed behind these huge masks. The same was true when we saw "Finding Nemo" on stage at Disney's Animal Kingdom last month. The masks became the focal point and you quickly lost sight of the individual behind the mask. Now in these stage plays the masks are supposed to be what is seen. It is what makes the story come alive. These are all imaginary relationships with a script that brings the story to the end the author desires. In real life and real relationships though it is these masks that cloud and distort the story and confuse the relationship. Pretending to be something or someone we are not leaves us empty and our relationships bankrupt.
It seems to me that hypocrisy is usually associated with wanting to impress someone and you are fearful that you cannot do that so you pretend to be something you are not. It is also easy to condemn something in others that you struggle with yourself. Hypocrisy is a strange animal because you know it is a lie and yet it somehow feed your ego and makes you think you are better than others.
You cannot build deep meaningful relationships on lies. Let's stop pretending (especially that we have it all together) and begin to live lives that are true and faithful. The freedom that comes will amaze you and your life will soar.
Let's put down the masks and let others see the real you.
How do you deal with the urge to hypocrisy.
2 comments:
Wouldn't it be wonderful if in the church, we would celebrate and affirm transparency, vulnerability and honesty? My experience however is that as one writer has put it, "The church is the only army in the world who shoots their own wounded." How sad and how downright unBiblical! When will the church become as accepting and open as AA???? Perhaps if the church was being "the church" such groups wouldn't even be needed.
"The Bud"
What would a church look like if we stopped condemning and began to accept and offer to people a transforming relationship with Jesus. Too many are put off by our self righteousness or at least their perception of it. I have always maintained that if anyone if not welcome in our church then we are something but certainly not the church we are called to be.
I look forward to trying to be "the church" in our community and that is why this emphasis on the 40 Days of Love is so important.
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