Nakedness

The Book, Shyness starts out by telling the story of George, a 4½ year old, who wore leg braces to correct the effects of infantile paralysis. Because of his condition, George had a morbid fear of people and would hide from them. To help George overcome this fear, his mother made a mask out of a brown paper shopping bag and convinced George that when he wore the mask, he became someone else. With the aid of the bag, his mother, and his schoolteacher, George overcame his fear of people. George was able to stay in school and eventually was able to take his mask off while he was around his classmates. 

This sounds like troubling behavior, but adults have the same fears. We probably don’t recognize it because we are so much more sophisticated. I think that more often than not, we hide behind our titles, degrees, athleticism, intelligence, talents, religion, politics, etc. This is not who we are. We are afraid that if we reveal who we are, others will make fun of or shun us. In a way, we are like fugitives, ever trying to cover up our “criminal character”. 

This is nothing new. This is part of our roots. After Adam and Eve had eaten of the forbidden fruit, God called out to them, “Where are you?” Adam responded, “I heard You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” (Genesis 3:8-11) 

 “Coming clean” means that we reveal our nakedness. It involves shame. It may mean rejection. It involves risk. It involves pain. It’s a price that most of us are unwilling to pay and so we continue to hide behind the mask we put on. 

But this is a bad thing. Unless the mask comes off, we can never deal with who we really are and worse yet, we can never know the God who calls to us, “Where are you?”