Taking Off the Mask

Halloween is officially over. Sad day. Growing up, Halloween was always one of my favorite times of the year. For one day, I didn't have to be Charlie Landis. I could be Count Dracula, Superman, and ,regrettably so, a woman. I finally had a good reason to wear my mom's dress out of the house.....please see the sarcasm. But I really did enjoy dressing up in a costume, not to mention the free candy. I have inherited a lot of things from dad: large calves, brown eyes, a receding hair line, and a sweet tooth. Now you can understand why Halloween was so dear to my heart growing up.

Someone once said, "Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional." This year I went back to my roots of my childhood...I wore a costume for Halloween! There were many suggestions on the table of what I should be, but I ended up on being Tweety bird.



This isn't one of my proudest moments. I didn't even win "Best Costume." As you can see, I had a big Tweety Bird headpiece that engulfed my entire head. It would get really hot in there, so I would take it off and put it back on. As I was doing so, it got me to start thinking about something profound (and you know that doesn't happen very often).

The Greek word for "hypocrite" in the New Testament is hupokrites. During the 1st Century, this was a term used for an actor in a play. These people would put on masks to show their role in the production. They would often play multiple parts in the play, so they would have to switch out masks in order to convey another character. This is where we get the meaning of this word today. A hypocrite is simply a person who pretends to have a virtuous character. Basically, this kind of person pretends to have it all together, when in actuality he doesn't.

Jesus rebuked the Pharisees in Matthew 23:27-28. He says,

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness."

Wow! Jesus unloads on the "virtuous" people of His day. The Pharisees were men who strictly followed the Law given by God, and they sought after righteousness. However, Jesus calls them out and calls them graves! Some graves nowadays are pretty nice. If you go to the cemetery in Topeka, Kansas, there is a fairly good size building that pretty marble. It has designs on the side, and the overall appearance of the grave is beautiful. Jesus says, "Yea...you guys look pretty on the outside, but on the inside you are like rotting corpses!" Ouch!

My last post I talked about the Alcoholics Anonymous meeting I attended, and I came to the conclusion that we all need to understand that we all do not have it right. This post is just piggy-backing off of the same idea. I know i can come off as if i have everything together, but the truth is I don't. I struggle with temptation. I sin. I fall time and time again in the daily struggle of overcoming my selfishness and pride. So what do I do? I put on this mask. My mask has a pretty smile to cover up my mistakes and a halo on the top to distract from my imperfection.

But its time to take of my mask and live an honest life that depicts the real Charlie Landis. I'm not saying that now I need to just let everyone know that I am this horrible guy, but I need to start living up to what my mask is showing. I must try to live a virtuous life, so that one day I will not have a need for any dumb mask to cover up my mistakes and selfishness.