Day 23: Say No to Hypocrisy

So, I was eating a sandwich and thought it was gone, which made me a little sad. I thought to myself, "I wish there were one more bite," and lo and behold! There was! AWESOME!!

Yeah, I know, GREAT story. :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"It's good to laugh at our hypocrisy. It's an admission of just how ridiculous it can be." SO true. I'm trying to think of an example in my life where I have been ludicrously hypocritical. . . the only one that comes to mind right now was the morning that I didn't finish my breakfast at school before students came in. Because I have a carpeted room, I make a big deal about students not having food in my classroom and eating (besides the fact that it's school policy, but we'll not get into that). Let me tell you, that morning I might as well have been eating an egg, because it was all over my face at that point. We make silly rules for others to follow, and yet we ourselves are usually the most guilty of breaking them. It's even worse when we are using someone else's standard against them, and yet we turn around and break it ourselves. Jesus' intent with the plank/speck thing was to show how crazy we really get.

If you didn't know, the origin of the word "hypocrisy" hearkens back to Greek drama as a name for actors who would ridicule others (seriously; it means "to play a part"). The idea of putting on a mask to hide your real self, and to point out in others the things that you don't like about yourself. . . sounds pretty human to me. A couple things struck me in this part of the chapter: "If's easy and less threatening to wear masks. . . you hear someone tell you they love you, and yet a voice inside you is saying, 'You say you love me, but if you knew the truth about me, you wouldn't say that!' It's a wearying road to travel." Man. I lived like that for so long. I won't get into all that now, but. . . well, once again I just have to praise God for how far He has taken me and be excited for where I will continue to go.

How do we avoid hypocrisy? Seems simple enough: instead of judging, we need to love others, both in word and in deed. It's so so so so so easy to pretend to love people. The phrase "I love you" comes out of some people's mouth so quickly and so often that I have to stop and really wonder what they mean by that. I'm probably a little too guarded in my use of the word "love", but that's because I believe it really should/does have a huge implication. On the other side, if my camp experience taught me anything, it's that allowing God to create His love in our life is really an amazing experience. I love the students in the group I got, and after two weeks I'm still thinking about them (quick story, before I forget: the evening I had them give me written prayer requests, I stuck them in my Bible for safekeeping. That evening, I opened up the Bible and wondered if the place I put them might have any implication for my prayers for them. The book was Leviticus, so I was definitely like. . . OK God, where are you going with this? Well, it was this passage, which talks about how to make a fellowship offering. What better way to thank God and become closer to Him than to offer prayers over the people in my family group? I thought it was neat, anyway). I still am much more of a "doer" than a "sayer" but who knows how that will shift as I continue to try and figure things out? And to hearken back to the whole love languages idea, I have to remember that some people respond more strongly to words than to actions, or at least to words accompanying the actions, whereas I tend to be more of a quiet worker (probably because for me, words don't say nearly as much as sacrificial actions or a loving touch). I feel like I'm birdwalking. . . . the point I'm making is that the world is to busy in their "love is God" mentality, rather than realizing that God is the only true source of love, and that's why we ought to be careful about using that word while at the same time having the confidence to use it in the appropriate context.

So there you have it. What plank(s) are in your eyes?

Point to Ponder: Hypocrisy is being more concerned about appearance than reality.
My favorite combination of words: "concerned about appearance." Don't get me started on this, but at the same time I should be careful not to start lashing out anyway, because that would end with me making a hypocritical statement, because I know that I am guilty of this attitude myself at times.

Verse to Remember: Romans 12:9- "Don't just pretend that you love others. Really love them."
Spoken right after the passage about offering ourselves as living sacrifices (in fact, the hierarchy here is: sacrifice, humility, love. Are we surprised by this? Because we really shouldn't be), what a simple yet potent idea. "Love must be sincere" is what the NIV says. If you really want to know all about love, 1 Corinthians gives us one of the best descriptions. Sometimes it seems really tough to get all of that right. . .and yet, other times, it seems to flow naturally out of our relationship circumstances. We need to strive for the latter and not get discouraged by the former (in fact, if we are having a problem connecting to someone down here, we need to yield that over to our Heavenly connection).

Question to Consider: Is there some circumstance or relationship in my life where I've grown comfortable wearing a mask?
Sometimes it seems like you tear down one wall only to find that you had put a bunch more behind it, just in case. I feel like that's the point I'm at in life in general at this point: I'm still trying to fully realize the implication of being a new creation, and that I don't have to hide out or keep others from knowing where I've come from and what I'm still struggling with. Again, I've opened up quite a bit, but there's still more for me to expose from behind the mask.