This morning, I need help.
In a couple of weeks, I'm giving the Consecration message to the senior class. When I accepted the invitation several months ago, the image of "masks" vs. "mirror" came to mind. I thought it would be simple enough to develop a short message about hiding (masks) vs. being seen (The Mirror.)
But as I've worked on this talk, it's grown quickly into a retreat and then a 12-part series. Every time I re-read Ken Davis's manta: "You can't possibly be TOO SIMPLE!" ten new ideas spring to life. I don't need new ideas; I need laser-sharp focus on ONE point and stories to go with it!
The bottom line of the juxtaposition is this:
The message of the masks: "You must change to be loved."
The message of The Mirror: "You must be Loved to change.
I was thinking of ending the talk with a couplet (a la Shakespeare):
Take off the masks, stop the show;
Look in The Mirror and, in Love, grow!
I've also pulled some lyrics from Phantom of the Opera:
(Need ideas on how I might use these lyrics!)
Masquerade!
Paper faces on parade.
Masquerade!
Hide your face, so the world will never find you!
...
Masquerade!
Every face a different shade.
Masquerade!
Look around -
there's another
mask behind you!
...
Take your turn.
Take a ride.
On a merry - go - round
In an inhuman race.
...
Eye of gold.
Thigh of blue.
True is false.
Who is who?
...
Masquerade!
Seething shadows
breathing lies.
Masquerade!
You can fool
any friend who
ever knew you!
I've got an opening story about my daughter (who's one of the graduates, so the students will love it) when she was just a toddler:
Annemarie was busily coloring with crayons all over the white entryway walls as I was silently coming down the stairs, fully aware of what she was doing. She didn't hear me until I got quite close to her; at that point, she moved -- without looking at me -- to her paper on the floor and began to color with ardent determination. When I said, "Annemarie!" and pointed to the walls, she said, "No, Mama! Look HERE! Look HERE!" and physically pulled me to the papers.
This little anecdote isn't about masks, but I'll use it to transition into the masks vs mirror concept; it is about my human instinct to pull people away from the truth about me (especially the unpleasant truth) and point them toward what I want them to see about me.
Now, I need help!
* After reading my "bits and pieces," what comes to your mind? Thoughts? Ideas? Cautions? Concerns?
* What scriptures come to mind?
* What Christian songs come to mind?
* I'd like to interview some of the seniors and use video clips to add their stories to my talk. What kinds of questions might I ask? (They're an honest and open group of kids.) Perhaps pull from the "Masquerade" lyrics to create questions?
* I'd love to weave in short references to Hamlet, Frankenstein, Pygmalion, and/or The Screwtape Letters (they did ask their English teacher to speak!) Any ideas?
I'm at the stage where I know I can "pull it together" if needed. But after spending time in silence and solitude this weekend, praying over this message, I feel impressed that it will be so much better with collaboration. I just have the sense that there are things I'm not seeing, things I'm missing because I've been floundering in pages (20+!) of notes and ideas.I look forward to your input!
"Well we all have a face
ReplyDeleteThat we hide away forever
And we take them out and show ourselves
When everyone has gone
Some are satin some are steel
Some are silk and some are leather
They're the faces of the stranger
But we love to try them on..."
This is from Billy Joel's song, "The Stranger." I thought of this song after having a conversation with my daughter and soon to be graduate (that will be listening to your speech!). It was about how she chose to be different from the other girls in her class by refraining from having a "boyfriend" at MBA and concentrating on her school work and developing lasting relationships with the girls that she lived with in the dorm. She grew up in our small town with little diversity but once she was at MBA, she learned about differences in people and that led her to live her life there by staying away from gossip and striving to be non-judgmental. Any situation that came up which made her uncomfortable, I insisted that she pray about and spend time with God. As a result, she was able to see that the mask was a hiding place but the mirror was a reflection of the truth. Sometimes the things that bother us the most about other people or things is just a reflection of what we need to work on in ourselves and perhaps even a wake-up call which brings us closer to God.
Be careful what you ask for, your brother may be lurking. Masks are neither good nor bad. When we use them to hide, as "fig leaves," to gain acceptance, they separate us from our true selves and the greatest danger is that we might begin to believe we are the face we have painted to please what we believe we ought to be.
ReplyDeleteBut masks allow us to express what we think we are not - and if we do so consciously, we may discover that the impulse to create the mask, to explore and play, means that we have come to know ourselves better by having the courage to paint our secret desire in public.
And mirrors ... beware the mirror, for its seemingly objective reflection is nothing more than a distorted illusion. The face staring back at you is not a mirror-self living in a mirror world. It is a two-dimensional illusion.
Only when we take each other's hands in a circle, and celebrate the masks we each try on, and make faces at each other, and laugh and cry together that we truly connect and mirror each other.
In accepting masks and glare from mirrors, in hugging and holding, in loving and in fellowship, our faces become the masks that God wears upon the earth, and as a con-gregation we mirror Him.
I Corinthians 13: 8-12
ReplyDelete8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
C. S. Lewis wrote "Till We have Faces". These verses are the bedrock for his premise in that book. It's a beautiful concept that would tie into your idea of masks and mirrors beautifully.