Our Counterfeit Appearance

This morning, I randomly recalled an event that happened when I was about ten years old. I woke up one Saturday morning, climbed out of bed, and walked down to our kitchen with pajamas on. I opened the pantry door, grabbed a box of Frosted Flakes, got a bowl from the cabinet, and began pouring my breakfast. With a slight post-sleep delayed response, I finally noticed that the cereal in my bowl was not the expected Frosted Flakes, but was (the ever-delicious) Cap'n Crunch. And as I stared back at the box and then the bowl again, utterly confused, my brother Eric popped into the kitchen and yelled "April Fools!"

I was thinking about this and came to realize that this story had great relevance to the way I live out my faith. In this story, the Frosted Flakes box was a counterfeit container for what was really stored inside. I was deceived by the fake exterior and was surprised by what I found in the interior.

I think for many of us, we play this game with our faith lives. We put on exterior appearances that depict us as strong and holy and compassionate. We show people the kindness of our hearts and not the jealousy that we feel towards them. We display our generosity and not our selfishness. We show our humility and hide our pride. And I even think that we do this with God. We offer him our good works and our prayers of thanksgiving, but hide from him the things we aren't proud of and the ways we need to repent. The reality is that this outside appearance does not mirror that which is within. We deceive others with our fake exterior and often surprise ourselves by what we find in the interior.

I'm not writing this to advocate that today we all show off our anger and pride and selfishness. Instead, I think the challenge for us is to make our interior match our exterior. What if today we took a look inside and really examined the incongruities that exist between the way we portray ourselves and the way we really are? What if today we prayed for the grace to become more compassionate, humble, generous, and holy so that we can truly be the people we say we are.

So we pray, Holy Spirit, that you may shed light on the inconsistencies of our faith and show us the ways that our hearts are still marred by sin. And we ask this that we, by grace, may bear authentic exteriors that mirror the holiness of our interior.