Behind the Mask: Reversing the Process of Unresolved Life Issues

By Bruce McNicol, Bill Thrall and John Lynch

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• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Nov 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9781934104064

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INTRODUCTION

The truths in Behind the Mask point to the origins of our unresolved life issues, which hinder us from enjoying substantial healing, maturing, and influence. The act of sin—ours or someone else’s—creates within us an involuntary response of either guilt or hurt, which leads to the inevitable effects of pain, turmoil, and mask wearing. Understanding this three-phase process and learning how to escape from it is what Behind the Mask is all about.

If Behind The Mask helps you, we recommend a second step toward God’s solution for these life issues:

It will take you on a journey of wonder and freedom in Jesus. The Cure book is available in digital, audio, or hardcopy form.

CHAPTER ONE

WHY THE MASK?

There is a face that we hide

Till the nighttime appears,

And what’s hiding inside,

Behind all of our fears,

Is our true self

Locked inside the façade!

—Façade from the musical Jekyll and Hyde

Over time, most of us notice that our struggles with sin are not going away. In fact, we have to paste more and more layers on the mask we hide behind just to hold it together. Our real thoughts, emotions, and behaviors—which are threatening and inappropriate—scare us. So we say things we don’t believe and pretend to like things we dislike. Some of us have become human time bombs—resentful, guarded, and ready to blow. We need a lot of downtime to be alone, free from the pressure of pretending.

Those around us know something’s wrong. Family or friends worry that it might have something to do with the masks they’re wearing. Others have stopped trying to work through any problems or concerns they have with us; they have learned not to bring up things that push our hot buttons. Don’t try to talk to him about… Don’t bring up… Eventually they stop risking intimacy with us. They tiptoe around us. He’s too thorny, too erratic. She’s too defensive, too unpredictable.

Most of us will admit to wearing masks but we have no idea how to take them off. We are in the dark about how we got like this. We blame our actions on circumstances or the pressure we’re under.

We need to see what causes the responses that trip us up. We need to come to the rea ization that our controlling behavior isn’t just a response to something happening right now. It is triggered by multiple unresolved sin issues from the past. When we begin to understand the progression of unresolved sin and what it does, we might no longer react to life like lemmings heading for a cliff. This chapter is designed to be used as a diagnostic tool to reveal where the problem is and what may have caused it.

WHAT UNRESOLVED SIN DOES TO THE HEART

Have you ever seen a Rube Goldberg device? These are contraptions you see on YouTube videos where a swinging weight is released, which lands on a seesaw, which launches a plastic cup, which arcs up and lands on a platform where a carefully balanced ball is pushed down a winding spiral track, triggering a fan that inflates a balloon, and so on, to some big finish. Unresolved sin in our hearts is a kind of spiritual and emotional Rube Goldberg device:

ACT OF SIN > INVOLUNTARY RESPONSE > INEVITABLE EFFECTS

Sin sets the swinging weight in motion. Someone sins against us or we sin against someone else, and that act of sin evokes within us an involuntary response. We don’t have to work at producing these responses; they are automatic. If we sin, our involuntary response is called guilt. If others sin against us, our involuntary response is called hurt.

God designed these responses to get our attention. Something has been broken and needs healing. However, many of

Reviews for Behind the Mask

[Dave Drum · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

All the general insights were very consistent and profound. The more specific conclusions were inconsistent at times. I really felt like I was learning and gaining a greater understanding of the effect of unresolved sin.