Masquerade Balls

“Anyone who sets himself up as ‘religious’ by talking a good game is self-deceived.” (James 1:26 MSG)

First of all, I don’t know anyone who sets himself up as ‘religious’ these days, although some might reluctantly admit to being ‘spiritual.’ There are many other self-descriptive adjectives that people prefer these days. Let’s look at the above verse in a more general way:

Anyone who sets himself up as _________ by talking a good game is self-deceived.

How would you like to be seen by the world? Smart, wealthy, successful, useful, honest, good, attractive, healthy, awesome, significant, disciplined, unique, upstanding, sophisticated, generous, classy, loyal, down-to earth, environmentally-conscious, patriotic, conservative, liberal, wise, mature, fun, witty…?

Most of us spend a great chunk of our life attempting to convince the world that we are acceptable and worthy. We put on personas that we deem presentable. Life becomes a masquerade ball of costumes and masks where the participants do not expect to know each other’s identity. We imagine that we are more interesting this way. We are under the illusion that we are bluffing others, but we are also deceiving ourselves.

Stephen Colbert plays a character by the same name on his show, The Colbert Report. He rarely comes out of character even when appearing on other shows or events. Most people don’t know what the real Stephen is like. He admits that he doesn’t allow his kids to watch his show, because they aren’t old enough to differentiate between who he really is and the character he plays. I wonder how he keeps it straight himself? This persona that he has created is so convincing and engaging, that even during personal interviews where he is supposed to be ‘real’, he reverts back to his TV character.

Sometimes, the world finds our façade more intriguing than our true selves. We respond to this feedback and present our masked hero version more frequently, while hiding our true identity. Eventually, we give up on who we want to be, and instead become the character the world wants us to be.