Thank you for listening to the Allender Center podcast.

I'm Dr. Dan Allender.

And I'm Rachel Clinton-Centen.

We're fiercely committed to providing hope and healing to a fragmented world.

And restoration for the heart.

Thank you for joining us.

Let's get this conversation started.

We're to our final killer of communion. And again, I'll be glad to say, this has not been an easy series as I've been thinking about my own life.

And as we come to this, final category, it's a doozy.

And some psychologists have referred to it as the false self. The ability to project a facade, a mask, and again, let me underscore,

we're not talking about being masked on behalf of others covering the potential of infecting

other people because of COVID. So hopefully, masking is not being heard

in that way. But the idea that I wear a mask is from Greek theater. That indeed, the actors seldom

showed their own faces. And it actually had a term that we use today called

hypocrisy. But it wasn't so much, you're a hypocrite. You claim to be this, but you actually are

that. Now, to be hypocritical was wearing a mask in the theater to project a particular

role. And so what we're going to step into today is the consequences of living with a mask

that actually hides your face from yourself, but as well from others. And it may be

less dramatic as rage or scapegoating or sabotage, but it's a silent killer. It's the CO2 built world where you suffocate in one sense in your own inauthenticness.

So as we step into this, again, the last thing I want to do is to kind of point my finger at hypocrites or those who wear masks.

Because what I want you to hear is, I don't think it's possible to be a human being growing up in even good, normal, broken families and not take on roles that fit you and don't fit you, are, in some sense, a mask that is comfortable.

You've worn it for a long season.

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