True Faced Reflection
Essay title: True Faced Reflection
Daniel Crowe
Spiritual Formation
Dr. Caddy
15 March 2006
True Faced: True Life
The authors who wrote True Faced were right on the money with their thoughts on how we often times walk around constantly wearing a mask in an attempt to hide the judgment from the outside world because of our imperfections. In the first chapter the authors tell that many of us have “lost our confidence that we will always please our audience, so we feel compelled to hide and put on a mask.” This immediately reminded me of one of my favorite articles written by the founder of Youth Specialties, Mike Yaconelli. He wrote an article called “Reader’s Digest Selves” in which he talks about this exact issue of hiding our true selves and keeping the rest of the world away at a distance. In this article, Yaconelli says “That is why the “Good News” of the Gospel is so painful. Jesus wants to do much more than forgive our sins; He wants to capture our real self—and for us to face who we are. Not only is our real self full of sin, it is full of flaws and brokenness—and full of hope” He then concludes this article with one of the truest statements ever saying, “The power of the Church is not a parade of flawless people, but of a flawless Christ who embraces our flaws. The Church is not made up of the whole people, rather of the broken people who find wholeness in a Christ who was broken for us.” I also really like that the authors give us reasons why unresolved sin damages us to the core. I like books that are practical and applicable and this book is definitely both.
I will always remember the two room analogies. The Room of Good Intentions is a place where I find myself stuck in. My only two reactions to my sin have either been guilt that I just distanced myself from God or apathy because of a undermining of the effects of sin and sin itself. When I think of sin I always thought of me and God connected by a chain link and whenever sin enters into my life, one of the links break and I am temporally separated from God-which reminds me of what the authors call “The Great Disconnect.” I don’t know how many times I’ve told God how stupid I was and if only He would change me, when in fact, he already did. My life’s actions have been “working on my sin in order to achieve an intimate relationship with God” (57). This book clearly shows the truth, that God doesn’t abandon you or separate Himself from you when you sin, but rather stands next you, arm over your shoulder, working on the sin together. This demonstrates that God is the only one who can resolve sin, not you nor anybody else- God’s power results in His glory. I love the point the authors make that sin cannot be managed. We tend to try to cover up our sin and try to handle the sin on our own. However, sin can’t be managed, it can only be avoided for a while before you inevitably fail again. As Christians, our sole strength from Christ and his sacrifice that took us from being sinners that are saved to saints that sin. The “Room of Grace” mentioned in the book is where we learn, discover, heal, comfort, help, and mature. This room is based on one true virtue-trusting God. When you trust God you desire to live out your life as the saint God said you are. The Room of Grace provides for each of us acceptance, love, healing, freedom, and power that is beyond what we can imagine, it’s here that God reveals His dreams for you.
The authors spend a great deal of time talking about the importance of love. This makes a lot of sense-you can’t talk about Jesus without bringing up love.