“There is nothing more winsome or attractive,” writes John Ortberg. “than a person who is secure enough in being loved by God that he or she lives with a spirit of openness and transparency and without guile.” He continues:One of the defining moments in any dating relationship is the first time the man sees the woman without makeup. Makeup is the art of “facial management.” You don’t want to let a guy look at your actual, unadorned face. So makeup is designed to make eyes look bigger, to make lips look fuller, nose look smaller, and hide the facial blemishes and flaws.
But it is not just our physical blemishes that we try to hide. Most of us work pretty hard to conceal the flaws that mar our character.
We learn this art of image management from an early age. Image management is simply trying to appear better to those around us than they really are. Sometimes these means are extreme, and at other times they are simple and very subtle in nature.
Our culture is full of examples. To mask, veil, or alter one’s self and appearance is more common than uncommon. We watch it on television and the movies. We read about it in the magazines and newspapers. We see it on the billboards. Ever since the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, deep within humans is a propensity to cover ourselves up – to wear make up.
John Eldredge sums it up well in Wild at Heart, comparing the way we veil our true selves to how Adam and Eve concealed themselves behind the foliage in the Garden of Eden: “We are hiding, every last one of us. Well aware that we, too, are not what were meant to be, desperately afraid of exposure, terrified of being seen for what we are and are not, we have run off into the bushes. We hide in our office, at the gym, behind the newspaper and mostly behind our personality. Most of what you encounter when you meet a man is a façade, and elaborate fig leaf, a brilliant disguise.”Authenticity draws us out from behind the trees and causes us to drop the "fig leaves." It poises us before the One who created us and loves just for who we are. It is out of that acceptance with God that we interact with humanity. It is out of that posture that we no longer have to try to "appear" better than we think we are perceived, we can simply be who we are and becoming....
3 comments:
I recently read through the passage about Ananias and Sapphira and was again amazed at God's strong reaction to their actions. In light of our recent conversations about image management, I'm wrestling with this passage again as I view it through a new lens. I know I'm probably missing some context issues here, but just taking it at face value, it seems these two managed their image to a level that led them into a series of lies. How different am I from them when I tell a version of the truth that makes me look good? What they did just doesn't seem all that extreme, yet that obviously wasn't God's view of the matter. And that has brought me to the conclusion that being authentic before God and others is crucial.
Interesting parallel...
...And penetrating example from Scripture.
When we choose to project a photo-shopped image of ourselves to the world. Our attempts at misdirection may be more potent than we intend. We are easily tempted into gazing into these touched-up self-portraits as if they are mirrors. These mirrors reflect an image of ourselves that we are much more comfortable living with. The unseen snare, in this self-deception, is that we may begin to believe that we are "good enough". We are not likely to pursue, at high cost, continued transformation into the likeness of Christ when we are already "good enough". Deception of others leads to deception of self which leads to complacency and stagnation. It is only the Truth that will set us free.
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