Why we wear masks?

I am rereading the book "The Cure" by John Lynch.  I highly recommend this book and if possible also read Dr. Brene' Brown's book, "The Gifts Of Imperfection" in tandem with it.  For me reading both of the books this way was a real eye opener.

In "The Cure", John Lynch lists reasons that he thinks that we wear masks and I wanted to share that list with you.

We want to prove to others that we're worthy of their love.


We want to prove to ourselves that we're worthy of being loved.


We want others not to feel sorry for us.


We fear if others see us truly, they won't want to know us.


We want to be seen as great.


Believers in Christ additionally are tempted to wear a mask when:


Our failures tell us the experiment of grace didn't work.


We want to prove to God that we're worth His choice to love us.


We believe that God wants us to fake it too so He looks good.


We want God to make our life work and our behavior seems like the price tag.


We think God cares more about right behaviors than our trust and dependence.


We think we're in competition with others, graded on a spiritual curve.


Our shame makes us believe we must assuage God's disgust in us.




It has been my experience, both as someone who has worn a mask and as one who deals with people wearing masks, that the pretending thing that we do to find acceptance, actually keeps us from being loved and having friends.  As Dr. Brown points out in her book, it takes courage to be honest and vulnerable, but when we do we open the door for compassion to come from others.

I am thinking that it is through this honesty that we are truly accepted and from this we are healed from our hurts, our past, and our failures.