We live in a culture where you can be whoever you want to be. That can be a good thing, if you are really putting in effort to better yourself and your life. However, it also can be a very bad thing. In these days you can have a internet blog through Myspace, Facebook and others that you can pretend to be someone you are not. It is so easy! You just simply use a fake name and a fake picture and presto! You have a whole new life in under 5 minutes. I realized this when I opened up a myspace artist account to start networking my music. I would click on an artist page to become there friend and it would turn out that it was not the artist they were portraying. I started to think, how many people are on these blogs that "are not really on these blogs?" How many of these people are pretending to be someone they are not, just for the simple reason that they do not like who they really are or they are ashamed of who they really are?
We all want to be know for something good. Whether it be for good grades in school, having a great career, having good looks, have a good life style or simply just being a good parent. No one walks around and says that I want to be know for beating my kids or I want everyone to see this report card with three "F's" and two "D's" on it.
The fact of the matter is that we all have our problems in life, some more serious than others. And when we have these problems we tend to want to keep them to ourselves. We conduct "image management" in which we only allow people to see the side of us that we deem appropriate for other people to see. See, when there is a gap between what you want to be know for and what you really are, that is a problem. Because when there is a gap there are secrets. For example, my wife and I are not the all cute-see perfect couple that most people see us as. We have our problems like any other normal married couple but when it is Sunday morning and we roll into the church parking lot, the disagreement gets put aside and we smile, laugh and shake hands. That is image management to a certain degree. I would not go into church being all frustrated at my wife in front of other people because that is none of their business. However, as believers, there are some problems in our lives that have more power over us in the secret dark shadows of our lives than they would in the public.
James 5:16 says,"Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."
Now I am not saying that you should stand in front your entire church this Sunday and tell them your deepest darkest secrets that you have been hiding for the past 10, 20, 30 years! But you need to understand that we all had a gap or have a gap! We all practiced "Image Management" at some point in our lives! Trust me, we all want to be known for something good and positive, but what we need is to be known by someone! Someone who loves us to much to leave us the way we are. Who is praying for your gap? Who knows who you really are?
