Underneath The Disguise
The person staring back at me from the mirror in a back room of the church was clearly disturbed; the orange eyebrows, pale white face, and wildeyed look clearly testified to his eccentricity.
It was the 26th of August, and the occasion was the eighth annual ladies meeting at our church. It is always a huge affair, with churches from several states bringing groups out to it. The theme this year was “Through the Looking Glass of God’s Word,” and I was to portray the Mad Hatter for the occasion.
Let me begin, please, by apologizing to all of you ladies out there for my lack of sympathy through the years. I confess that it was just a misunderstanding on my part; I really did not grasp the agony that attends the makeup application process. A young lady from the youth group was more than happy to torment her pastor for a while, poking instruments of cruelty onto my sensitive eyelids over and over again with seeming glee.
That, combined with flawless costume preparation by her mother and some helpers led to my dark mustache disappearing in a sea of white, my year round tan going away, and my normal clothing being transformed as well. They did so well at their task that, when I walked out onto the stage, even people who knew me did not recognize me.
I changed my voice for the occasion. At times I would be warbling in a high-pitched British accent, and then at other times would whip into an angry Scottish brogue and then dive straight into a mountain hillbilly dialect.
For fifteen minutes there was absolutely nothing that seemed in any way like me. Orange wig. thimbles and colored band-aids on my fingers. Socks so wild that they could be used to attract passing search planes. Totally different mannerisms of walking. Totally different hand movements.
And yet I had really not changed a bit. A person is not their disguise; both physically and spiritually, a person is who he is underneath the disguise. DNA and chromosomes tell the truth of a person’s identity even if they have successfully fooled the entire world, including themselves, and even if the entire world has celebrated that deception.
Likewise spiritually, a person is what he or she is underneath any disguise they have wrapped themselves in.
2 Timothy 2:19 says, “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his.”
Jesus in Matthew 7:22-23 said, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
Anyone can dress himself up in Sunday finery and learn Christian songs and adopt Christian verbiage. These things are nothing more than outward changes that do nothing to change one’s actual spiritual identity. The only thing that changes a spiritual identity is a new birth.
In John chapter three, Jesus told a very religious man named Nicodemus “Ye must be born again.” And that is why Jesus came to begin with. Not to create an outward change devoid of inward change, but to create an inward change that would produce an outward change.
2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
The huge orange eyebrows and wig are off now. My mustache is back. My mocha colored skin no longer looks deathly white. I am in full-bore preacher mode, ready to help if needed. So if you would like to know more about this matter of being born again, I would love to hear from you.
And I promise, no one will be screaming “Off with her head!” or anything of the sort.
Bo Wagner is pastor of the Cornerstone Baptist Church in Mooresboro, N.C., a widely traveled evangelist, and author of several books, including a kid’s fiction book about the Battle of Chickamauga, “Broken Brotherhood.” He can be emailed at 2knowhim@cbc-web.org.