What Halloween Mask Are You Wearing?
Posted by Kaley Thompson Halloween costumes hang in storefronts. Hats. Gowns. And the spookiest of all, masks. Masks always give me the heebie-jeebies. They seem so abnormal, superficial and constricting. A mysterious cover up for who the real man is. And while I sit staring at fake faces in storefronts, I realize that I see these facades everyday.
It’s the supermom in workout clothes pushing the grocery buggy with her perfect children holding hands. It’s the teenage boy, all-star athlete who is riding his small town fame straight into a college scholarship. It’s the business man in the front pew at church overflowing with spiritual and monetary success. It’s every person we’ve ever assumed to grasp their "calling" perfectly while we sit confused. So we try on their masks. Supermom. All-star. Businessman. When they don’t fit, what do we do? What mask are we wearing this Halloween that is keeping us from becoming who we really are? This is a trick I learned in school. It’s called process of elimination. Because there are so many ideas of who you're supposed to be floating around in the world, let's find out who you aren’t. Here are a few questions to help you discover what masks you’ve been trying on that really aren’t fitting:
Are you saying you’re healed when your heart is still broken? Are you a “yes” person when there are some things you need to say “no” to? Have you been putting on a smile in front of your spouse but holding a grudge? Are you trying to fit in when you know you were meant to stand out? Are you saying you are anything, anything at all, that you’re not?
Each of our fake identities sit in layers, so piled on top of who we really are that we’re afraid to discover our real self underneath it all. Like the end of a long Halloween night, let’s take off the masks. Let’s throw them in a trick-or-treat bag and dump them into the trash like stale candy. Then look at our uncovered selves in the mirror.
Who are you? Underneath it all, what do you really look like? What do you like to do? What do you want out of life?
We don't have to wear the masks of who we should be because God made us who we are. And that is ok! Flaws, successes and characteristics that need both improvement and celebration are ok. This permission to be ourselves rips off the mask and replaces it with our true identity as someone created by God on purpose for a purpose. To be uniquely gifted. Authentically awesome. And, to a world of mask wearers, refreshingly real.
Kaley Thompson is the chief storyteller at People of the Second Chance. She lives in Charlotte, NC and wears a sparkly motorcycle helmet.