The Mask

Sometimes we have an image of ourselves which is not confirmed by our reflection in the mirror.

Women may slap some more make-up and cream on their faces to obscure the incongruities.

For men the best option is to come to terms with reality and look in the mirror only when it's getting dark, and a less than perfect eyesight may turn out to be not such a handicap after all.

The standard of the society in which we live also holds up a mirror.

It reflects at us what we are in the light of the standard of society.

Most of us enjoy being liked and having a place for ourselves within the greater structure of society, yet when this liking as well as a place for us is withheld, then what are we to do?

What if the reflection of the mirror of our society reflects back at us where we fail to comply with the standard?

What if the areas where we do not conform to expectations are made clear to us in a painfully razor sharp reflection in the mirror of society?

What if the reflection shows us disapproval and reflects the image of failure and rejection?

How will we deal with the reality of that mirror?

Do we learn to conform for the sake of being liked and given a place in the social structure of society, even if it means that we have to shatter the true image of ourselves in YHWH's mirror?

Do we learn to put on the mask for the sake of beholding a favorable reflection in the mirror of society, a painted facsimile of a false identity to replace our true face?

Or are we willing to endure the hardship of being an outsider by not changing ourselves in the image of the reflection of the mirror of society, because we identify with an image in a different mirror, one held up by our Creator?

All of us wear the mask, even if it is for just a season.
Even if we wear the mask only for a season, we have to deal with the legacy of wearing the mask for the rest of our lives, because wearing the mask leaves scars.

The mask is the false image created by corrupt standards.

This image can manifest as the perfect conformist, or it may profile itself as the perfect rebel.

A rock band promoted by a rebellious image is just another mask of conformity worn by those in that band to live up to the image.

Rock 'n' Roll is just a big circus of conformity, as evidenced by the masks worn by the artists in this circus.

The mask is made in the image of the mirror, the image of the standard held up by our parents, by school, by our churches, by our corporations, by our circle of friends, by our politicians, by our society.

The mask gives us a good reflection in that mirror.

The mask learns to say 'yes' when it is required to do so.

The mask learns to lie whenever truth becomes too inconvenient.

The mask learns to set aside what is right and good for personal benefit such as monetary gain, or more power.

The better you become at acting out your mask, the greater the reward given to you.

The more persistent you become in wearing your mask, the higher up in the rank of this world you are promoted.

Wearing the mask and acting in accordance with it, you become the creator of other masks.

You hold up and evangelize a standard to which others need to conform to receive a favorable reflection in the mirror of society.

Yet, when we put on the mask, the mask does not remain an exterior shell hiding our true face.

It begins to replace our true face and change our heart in the image of the mask.

Bit by bit it works its way into our heart and soul, until finally it has devoured our soul and painted our heart in the colors of the mask.

All along the way to our heart the mask overtakes our personality and changes us in its image.

It reduces us to robots, cogs in the big wheel of lies which makes the world go round.

We lose our identity as we merge with the new identity of the mask, and as we grow into the new artificial identity we gain approval and a higher rank in the mirror of the world.

We are born in a mask.

As spirits we enter a body which is predisposed to creating a mask for us to wear.

The Bible calls this being born in sin, a lethal combination of genetic disposition as well as a straight-jacket of the demands and expectations of our environment.

First we learn to wear the mask of the family into which we were born.

Wearing this mask gets us their approval and favor.

Every child hopes to see its reflection in the mirror of YHWH in the parents.

Yet the families where there is an undefiled presence of YHWH's mirror are rare.

By far most children are given a reflection in the culturally and genetically determined corrupt mirror of their parents.

So, from the moment we take our first breath we learn to develop our mask.

School is the second stage where we learn to fully identify with the mask.

School conditions us to respond in accordance with the image of the mirror the school upholds, thus serving as a preparation for us to take up our place as obedient conformed individuals having merged with the identity of the cog-mask.

The kill-shot comes when we leave school and enter the workplace where we serve as cogs sacrificing our life-force to keep the wheel of lies in motion.

That is, if we have not dropped out of school because of our incompatibility with the mask.

But even drop-outs can be corrected and forced to wear the mask afterwards in a great variety of ways.

In the workplace and our social circles we become the mask.

As we have become the mask, we learn to think in terms of masks.

The religious mask, the atheist mask, the entrepreneur's mask, the medical mask, the political mask, the art mask, all are masks derived from the standard incorporated in the mirror held up to the masks.

As we become a mask amidst millions of other masks we turn life into one big freak show, a stage of fools acting out the roles assigned to them by the masters in the dark pulling the invisible strings on their costumes.

You either learn to wear the mask 24 hours per day, or face the consequences of receiving a reflection in the mirror of society which you would rather avoid.

From birth we are set up to wear the mask, conform to the mask, and ultimately become the mask.

Yet when we become the mask we will have forgotten who we truly are, and we die in our soul.

The mask begets a perfect reflection in the mirror of society.

The more we conform to the standard of the mirror, the more perfect our reflection becomes.

Yet the more we conform, the more we become aliens to who we truly are.

Until the moment comes when an alien has taken our place and lives in the form of our body in its designated position as a cog in the great big wheel.

The more we immerse ourselves in the reflection of the corrupt mirror, the less tolerance we have for our reflection in YHWH's mirror.

YHWH's mirror shows our masks as masks, alien elements to our identity.

When we gaze into that mirror wearing our mask, we behold a realistic reflection of the sinister deformed ugliness of the mask, a mask which only could give a favorable reflection in a distorted, corrupt mirror.

But in the mirror of truth, the mask is shown to have an ugliness which we prefer to turn our heads away from.

Yet if we run and hide from our reflection in the mirror of YHWH's truth, the price we pay for our persistent denial is more than we can afford.
For it comes at the price of our very essence: our soul.