“I will walk in my house with blameless heart.” Psalm 101:2 NIV
“Live before God and man with a tenacious authenticity.”
My thoughts today are about “role playing.”
In ancient Greek theater, actors often wore masks to define the role of a character, whether tragic or comedic. Sometimes, the same actor could play dual parts of comedy and tragedy by changing masks. The Greek comedy/tragedy mask became the symbol of the theater, television, and motion picture industry today. The word “hypocrisy” comes from the Greek word describing “an actor on a stage playing a role.”
I have read that many celebrities are actually shy, far different in person than as seen on stage or screen. They become skilled at stepping into a character enabling them to be believable in a role that might be much different than they are. Behind the safety of their mask of words and actions in a script written for them by another, they feel free to be someone other than what they really are.
The problem comes if and when they begin to believe they are the character they play. I’ll bet you know people who are neither celebrities, nor actors and actresses, who also live that way. In everyday life, an ordinary person can dutifully play a character they have assumed for themselves or a role someone else assigned to them, afraid to be real, afraid to let others know them, wearing a mask that conceals their true self while hiding from others and even themselves, or unsuccessfully, hiding from God.
But what if you, in your everyday life you are just acting, role playing – denying who you are while pretending to be someone you are not? “This above all, to thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” Hamlet, William Shakespeare. Be authentic; be true; be pure; be real. Live before God and man with a tenacious authenticity. Be who you are, but be the best that you can be.
The Psalmist wrote, “I will walk in my house with blameless heart.” Psalm 101:2 NIV. Home is where you should learn that it is safe to be yourself, and where you should desire to be your best. You can presume that being on your best behavior behind closed doors is not as important as your manner of speaking and acting in public. Actually, it’s more important, much more. Who you choose to be at home is most likely who you really are. Your reputation is important, but who your family and friends know you to be is more essential that what others believe you to be.
An individual, whose private persona and public persona have a large discrepancy, lives uncomfortably in the dissonant tension of a double life. The Greeks called that hypocrisy. That is unacceptable for Christ-followers: “So get rid of all . . deceit. Don’t just pretend to be good! Be done with hypocrisy and jealousy . . grow into the fullness of your salvation.” 1 Peter 2:1-2 NLT.
David learned to be real before God and others the hard way, and then learned the exquisite joy and freedom that follows, “Oh, what joy for those . . whose record the Lord has cleared of sin, whose lives are lived in complete honesty.” Psalm 32:1-2 NLT. You are free to be real when you have nothing to hide.
My prayer for you today is that you are real, genuine through and through.