Masks: Slander vs. Compassion

One thing that is tough for me to deal with, understand, or have any sympathy for is masks. People who live hidden on the inside out of fear, insecurity, or attempts to advance in life or ministry. People who are so concerned and consumed with their image appearing clean and perfect that they will do anything to keep it that way.

In a recent situation with someone in my life (I say "recent situation"... what I mean is I'm walking this out as I type this and after), I have taken on this attitude of "Why do they get away with so much?? Why are the people who know them so deceived and naive to what is really going on?" A close friend recently brought the following to my attention: "The things you think they are simply 'getting away with' are the things that are going to eventually hang them unless someone intervenes." And she did not mean intervening by spilling their beans and slandering their character ("Slander: to defame." It means to expose someone, it doesn't necessarily mean the things said are not true). She was speaking of prayer.

"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds." -2 Corinthians 10:3-4

Typically when someone is masked, everyone thinks they are okay. Why wage war through prayer for someone when they seem to have it together? It is up to the people who know the truth about what is going on, those who know the dark places, to fight tooth and nail against the enemy for their lives.

"Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." -Galatians 6:2

The realization I have come to is that before I am able to pray for this person in that way, I have to have compassion for them. And I have to make a decision- is the anger and frustration I have in my heart for this person and their decisions more important to me than their lives? Than their souls? So I pray for my heart to be broken for this person. I pray that compassion will well up in my heart and spark intercession.

Hope

"To hope is to anticipate. It is more than dreaming, however. It is possessing within ourselves an expectation that someday there will be the fulfillment of that desire. It will become a reality. Hope always looks to the future, it's always on tiptoes. It keeps us going. It makes a dismal today bearable because it promises a brighter tomorrow." - Chuck Swindoll

Growing up, and especially in highschool, my favorite word was "hope." I always thought at some point I would get that tattooed on me. But as life progressed and certain events took place, I totally forgot about it. Not just the tattoo, but the entire concept. I feel like I forgot what it was like to hope and I got caught up in just trying to get by, just trying to survive.

This has only recently occurred to me when I read about hope in a devotional. A lightbulb went off. It's like the word, along with its meaning, got buried away in me somewhere, and just recently poked its head out of the dirt. I don't think I ever made a conscious effort or decision to bury it. Life buried it.

But lately I rediscovered my love for the word. And I'm trying to get a grip on what it really means to embrace it. Sometimes it seems foolish to embrace it. When I was 18 I discovered the verse "Hope deferred makes the heart sick." And that made a lot of sense to me at the time.

But recently I came across the following verse. And I am crazy about it, because it speaks less of our ability to hope and more of God's faithfulness, the reason for our hope.

"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful." -Hebrews 10:23

I tend to spend a lot of time waiting for the other shoe to drop. Waiting for the rug to be snatched out from under me. But God loves me with the love of a Father, with unconditional love. When my moods swing, His promises are still true. When my hope wavers, His faithfulness stands firm. His word is his bond. He does not break promises.