Taking the mask off

Maybe it's something in the Kansas water.

First there's the church that protests the funerals of vets killed in battle because God hates America, they say.

Now a 12-year-old boy was described by friends as a wholesome kid who often volunteered at church, handing out bulletins, working audio and video equipment and helping other kids learn Bible verses. They said he showed no outward signs of family problems. Then, police say, the boy did the unthinkable, allegedly killing his parents and wounding two of his younger siblings in a case that has rattled this rural farming and ranching community of 3,700 near the Kansas border. Police say they discovered the attacks Tuesday after the boy called 911 to report a shooting. When officers arrived, they found the bodies Charles and Marilyn Long, who had been fatally shot. Two of the couple's children — a 5-year-old girl and a 9-year-old boy — were wounded.

I guess my point today is that no one really knows what is going on inside of, well, any of us. We, as described yesterday, mask up. We hid the pain, the sorrow and even the, uh, unthinkable pretty darn well.

Here's the amazing part. The only one who knows us inside, truly knows us inside, is the one with the power to harm us the most.

Get it?

God knows us. I love the definition of confession is telling God what He already knows. That's true. He sees through our masks, through our deception and through the (again with that word) hypocracy.

When will we learn?

Maybe not until the masks come off at the end of the party we call life.

And then the television reports will shove a microphone in front of someone's face on the street and they will say, "He was so quiet" as they describe yet another killer.

Masks are not good, even at Mardi Gras time.

What most of us need is some good old fashioned accountability. What most of us get is some bad old-fashioned advice. Mask up. Keep it in. Don't let anyone know.

Take the mask off and fess up. There's healing in that.