This week we are kicking off a brand new series called America’s Next Top Poser. This is all about our culture and how it affects us. From telling us how to dress, to how we need to act in situations. Every week we will explore a poser.  This week America’s Next Top Poser is the inner you. This is the part of you that struggles with who you are and who you want to be. But this inner you isn’t always authentic. Many times in life we put on a mask posing to be someone we are not. We try to be like our favorite rapper, movie star, or athlete. But is that how its supposed to be? To become something someone else is telling you to be? So we put on the mask of what we’ve seen modeled, but at the root of it all is acceptance vs rejection. 

  • We put on the Happy Mask, the mask that says, “I’m always happy, never hurt. Things are always fine.” But really they’re not. This mask is a trap of constantly trying to avoid rejection. “If they saw what was really happening, they would reject me.”
  • We put on the Calloused Mask, this is a guy’s favorite mask,  This mask says “I don’t need anyone.” We wear this mask because we are insecure. We have been rejected so much we begin to believe “If I just act this way that I know you will reject me, then it doesn’t hurt as bad. You are not really rejecting me, you are rejecting the mask.” I reject you, before you can reject me. 
  • Or we put on the Righteous Mask, this can seem like a desirable mask to wear, but it is filled with false humility. This mask is the mask saying, “I’m only trying to help  you, because when I do, I feel accepted.” This mask also is an attempt to build self-esteem at the expense of looking better than someone else. This is a mask that is a selfish driven heart desperately attempting to heal from past rejection. However, it doesn’t work. 

Overall, fearing rejection is the driver for wearing the mask and missing out on true authentic friendships and relationships. But Jesus is the healer. In Luke 19, there is a story of a man wearing a mask, his name was Zaachaeus. Nobody liked Zaachaeus he was constantly rejected by the people around him for the job he worked. He wore the Calloused Mask. But then came the day where Zaachaeus was finished wearing the mask and it only took someone to accept him for who he was. To look past the mask and see the real him. Jesus accepted Zaachaeus and Zaachaeus was never the same.