No Masks on the Narrow Path

If someone chooses to live on the broad path, it’s easy to wear different personas—different masks.

A red hat at work. A blue hat at the bar. A white hat at home with family.

The smile changes, but the mask remains—hiding what’s really inside.

Satan must smile when he sees so many masks, each one quietly supporting his cause. I know he must have smiled when I was one of them.

I’m not so sure God was amused, even if others and I were.

In psychology, it's called a lack of congruence—when what’s inside doesn’t match what’s outside.

We expect to see that on the broad path. People can live their entire lives as a lie, never really being known for who they are, or who they could become if they followed the narrow path.

But what about those of us who profess to follow Jesus?

Do we wear one face on Sunday, another at home, and still another at work?

Do we raise our hands in worship, sing His praises, and then fall silent about Him in the places where it might cost us something?

Do we pray at our home dinner table, but hesitate when we’re in public at our favorite restaurant? Or do we stay quiet altogether—not to offend, but perhaps because we’re concerned about how we’ll be seen?

I’ve been there, too.

But if we are walking the narrow path, maybe it’s time to lay down the masks.

Maybe it’s time to be the same person—in "church", at home, at work, and everywhere in between.

Maybe we should have the same heart, use the same words, pledge the same allegiance.

Not being harsh or disrespectful, but simply honest with everyone.

Fellow pilgrims, the call isn’t to perform for the world—it’s to be the new creation in Christ. In short, be who God calls us to be.

To let our “yes” be yes, and our “no” be no.

To stop hiding behind the language of cultural sensitivity when it becomes an excuse to remain silent.

We are not called to be offensive, but neither are we called to be invisible.

At some point, the mask has to come off.

_______

“Let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.”
Matthew 5:37 (NKJV)

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.”
Romans 1:16 (NKJV)

“Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.”
Matthew 10:32–33 (NKJV)