Bruce's Personal blog: Final "Letter" in MaskS (Status)

This is the final installation of my acronym called MASKS. This is a test in the discipline of consistency. (Yes I do grade myself on the curve!) SO, here it is - we are all hard-wired with those famous 5 senses (the sixth sense is a great movie, but not science). Society naturally follows A&E's lead (don't blame those gorgeous avocados) and judges by their senses and therefore has created a mask of value which it willingly (forcefully) attaches to humans. Our true value gets lost, covered up, in this self-evaluation. These masks deaden the song of our heart (God's Spirit singing into our heart) and create illusions of being ok. But masks never seem to stay in place and we keep finding ourselves disappointed, and tempted to believe life, love, and true friendship to be a joke. We believe even more lies and then have to create mini-masks, stacked at multiple depths, to try and keep believing the mistruth that what we do makes us valuable. Religion is one of the biggest peddlers of such poison. Only the TRUTH can set us free. The truth is never found in ivory tower or some Eastern philosophy (Yoga is great for the physical well-being), but in a being - a real live, I want to be your friend being - JESUS who lived and walked and looked like a Jew. (Maybe because He was/is one?) Here are my jumbled thoughts on the last letter of my word MASKS

M oney
Appearance
Skill
Knowledge
STATUS

I wanted a fake Rolex watch! I thought "how cool to be riding on a plane and kind of hang my hand out there . . . just look at me." This was in the early years of "knock-off" watches. We were in Mexico and I had found one for $25. It looked amazing. The good ones were made in Hong Kong at the time. (Laura and I had looked at those while in the Orient - people were paying a few grand for what they thought was a real Rolex only to find out when it was looked at in the US that they were incredible fakes - they probably lasted as long as the real "R".)

I begged for my sweet, so-easy-to-get-along-with wife, but she is "tight" when it comes to money (it's a good thing) and said it was one of my 10 greatest "stupid spontaneous spending ideas" ever. I did get one, but I had to wait a few years. I had told this story as a guest speaker in Boise, ID. A year later I was speaking there again and a businessman who travels to Mexico on a regular basis gave me one. He had bought one and had saved it until I returned. Wow! When he gave it to me, a lady who didn't know either of us was waiting to talk to me. She became very upset at the way I kept laughing when I got this "expensive" gift. She almost left without me having a chance to clarify (another great sermon for another day). Anyway I got my watch and did wear it for social experimentation purposes. At times, with certain people it really did work.

Status can be a watch, a title ("My son is a doctor!"), or any of several "social idols." Some of the reason the "rich and famous" waste money is that it's part of that Status mask. But if anyone could be a poster child for Status being a poor measurement of value, that Charles fellow has got to be the man (He once hung out with that Lady Di lady). All the High English blood in the world still can't fulfill what God alone can do!

Do you have something in your life that gives you that sense of "being ok?" Last week it was my BBQ Monster (Mine is bigger than Kasey's- Ha . . . Summertime is here and watching Shrek again would be a great idea).