Everyone's A Pirate

Ever watch a Scooby Doo episode? That was my favorite cartoon when I was little because no matter how many times I had seen the scary monster that Shaggy and the Scoob were running from, no matter how ridiculous of a creature was chasing them, I always believed that this creature was a real life monster spawn of Satan from Hell. Even though every episode I had ever seen had the big monsters mask being ripped off to expose the puny guy underneath. I never got it, I was always fooled. In fact It went the same way with most everything I watched. I loved horror movies and still do because there is this slight chance that what I was watching was reality. Freddy Krueger, in my opinion the scariest monster ever, haunted my dreams the way he haunted the dreams of his victims in those movies. Every shadow I saw was Freddy, every weird noise, every screech I heard from a chalkboard. I was, I think the only kid in the world that cried hysterically when they killed Jaws in the first movie, not because I like sharks, you all know that I hate them, mostly because of Jaws, but because this monster, this evil creature from hell, I had just watch for the last 2 hours eat everyone, turned out to be a simple shark, a normal bloodthirsty run of the mill Great white shark. Big yes, scary, yes please, but supernatural, no. I was shocked and it felt like I was lied to the whole movie, it wasn’t real, the amazing was not real. This is a pattern that continued with me and looking back now and examining the way I function, I realize that I always believed the lies and stories and legends because I wanted to be fooled. Sometimes reality in our lives cause us to prefer a fairy tale or fiction kind of reality or way of thinking. We want to believe so bad sometimes, which is why that show Myth Busters sucks so bad because those morons just can’t leave well enough alone, they have to go and disprove all the the myths that we love to believe and teach others about.
What is the function of a mask? To cover reality right. To make others believe something that is not the truth, whether it is a mask you wear for Halloween trying to scare people ot the a mask you put on to make people believe your skin is tighter than it is, or the mask that many of us are guilt of wearing on a daily basis, the mask that you wear so that other s can not see what is really going on inside of you, or who you really are. Masks were made to deceive and how good we have become at deceiving haven’t we. Some of us live our whole lives for other people that are living for other people. We see what is acceptable or cool in others and we put that mask on, we keep doing this until there is no part of who you really are left for others to see. We pretend we are something we are not until sometimes we do not even remember who we are, but you know that in front of others at least you feel more comfortable about yourself and you know that others feel more comfortable with you too, because people distrust things that are different than them. So we wear the masks through school to college, to work and wherever life takes you we go on trying to make others feel safe and comfortable about who you are. That is why they tell you to never, ever talk about 2 things, what? Religion and Politics, because it makes people feel uncomfortable about you when they find out you believe differently which is why so many in our country just cannot get along. The truth is that people would rather believe that you are the same as them because it makes them feel more normal and you seem more trustworthy, so they would like you to keep those masks on, and so would the Devil.
John 3:19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
Christ is described here as light, why? Because the world is dark, it is full of lies, it is full of myths that people love to believe to feel better. They would love to believe that you can work your way into Heaven so that those that make mistakes can’t go, it makes them feel better, they would love to believe that there is no hell, because hell is scary, they would love to believe that every behavior is acceptable because it makes them feel better abut their evils. There are lies at every dark corner you go around. It simply is easier to believe a lie as long as it makes us feel more comfortable and the thought of an all knowing and powerful God who is with us, everywhere makes some feel uncomfortable about themselves. But one thing is true about truth, it is seldom comfortable. Jesus came, He died and rose again for us and gave us the truth, yet because we would rather believe a lie rather than the truth we often write Him off as untrue. We all do it, believer and non-believer, we too often choose to believe what makes us comfortable rather than truth, so we put on the mask to make yourself feel better, but life is not about masks. We have such a short time here, too short to spend so much time living in ignorance, living for other’s comfort.
It is God’s desire for us to remove the masks, and get rid of them. To step out of the shadows we hide in sometimes and walk in the truth that He has made available to us. He has given us an entire book of truth that we seldom read because it makes us uncomfortable to read it. Some say they do not read it because it is boring, and they do not understand it, I say that is a cop out. Bibles today are written in our language, we understand. Boring...In the Bible, a sea was parted, the world was flooded, a donkey spoke to a guy, there is a war in Heaven, an epic battle between good and evil, and a million other things that we would rush to the theater to see, we avoid the Bible because we avoid God. Because He makes us uncomfortable. So uncomfortable that many Christians that really do believe where the unbeliever mask to school so as to not upset others about who you really are. This is no way to live, because you are not making any difference to anyone by wearing costumes all the time. If you like to look like a pirate, so be it, be a pirate, but you are not doing justice to the person that God made you and molded you to be, unless you really are a pirate. If you want to be a clown than go ahead and dance and juggle and squirt people with water because that is what people love, a good laugh. But you know what people need? They need God, they need the truth and they need it from you, so if we could just take off the masks and be what God wants us to be in front of everyone, we will see that people will come running out of the dark corners to find the truth in you, for you to lead them in the right direction, because later in life, when you realize where all of your masks have taken you and you do not know the truth about anything, you look for any truth you can find, and Jesus shines through us like a torch. This is how you make a real difference and bring glory to God in your lives.
Prov. 23:23 Buy the truth and do not sell it; get wisdom, discipline and understanding.