When I
was 10 years old, I spent much of my time pretending to be someone
else. When I played road
hockey, I was Toronto
Maple Leafs goalie Mike Palmateer.
When
I played football, I was Saskatchewan Roughrider safety Ken
McEachern. When I rode my
bike, I was racing legend A.
J. Foyt.
Pretending
you are someone else when you are a kid is fun. Pretending to be someone
else when you are
an adult is lonely and isolating.
Rather
than be who we really are, we adopt personas so that we seem more
impressive to
others. Instead of talking
about how we
really feel, it is tempting to put on the “I am fine” mask and
keep everyone else
out. Outward appearances
do not always
match up with what is going on inside of us.
Such
is
the case with the rich, young ruler (Mark 10).
He looked good from afar. He
seemed to be in control of his life.
However,
just below the surface, something was wrong.
Seeking
something that he did not have, the man “ran up to him [Jesus] and
fell on his
knees” (verse 17) before asking for help.
Jesus makes him an offer. He
says, “Sell everything you have and give to the poor… then come
follow me!”
(verse 21). We often argue
about why he
was told to sell everything, but in doing so we miss the point. The focus is not on the
selling, but on the
“come follow me!” Jesus is
offering him
a chance to start over. What
he had been
chasing had not made him happy, so leave it behind and go after
something that
will bring joy and fulfillment.
This
is
the same offer that is made to Nicodemus.
He is missing something too, so Jesus’ advice is, “Be born
again!” (John
3:3). Start over! Give up your pretence of
holiness and get
real. Put away the fake relationship that you have with God and
develop a real
one!
The
message of the church is that, “God was reconciling the world to
himself in
Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed
to us this
ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:19). The way home has been
provided.
Your
real life starts when you are brave enough to stop pretending.
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