Don't Be Fooled!

Don't be fooled by me! Don't be fooled by the face I wear, for I wear a 
MASK! I wear a thousand masks, masks that I am afraid to take off, and not ONE of them is me! Pretending is an art that is second nature with me, but don't be fooled. I give the impression that I am secure, that all is sunny and unruffled with me, within as well as without, that confidence is my name and coolness is my game, that the waters are calm, and that I am in command and in need of no one. But DON'T believe it; 
PLEASE DON'T!

I idly chatter with you in the suave tones of surface talk.  I tell you everything that's really nothing, nothing of what's crying within me!
So when I'm going through my routine, don't be fooled be what I'm saying. Please listen carefully and try to hear what I'm NOT saying; what I would like to be able to say; what for survival, I need to say - but I cannot say! I dislike the hiding, honestly I do. I dislike the superficial phony games I'm playing. I'd really like to be genuine, spontaneous, and me; but you have to help me! You have to help me by holding out your hand, even when that's the last thing I seem to want or need.  Each time you are kind, gentle and encouraging, each time you try to understand because you really care, my heart begins to grow wings, very small wings, very feeble wings, but WINGS!

With your sensitivity and sympathy and your power of understanding, 
I can make it!  You can breathe LIFE into me.  But it will not be easy for you. You see, a long conviction of worthlessness builds strong walls.  But love is stronger than strong walls, and therein lies my hope.  Please help beat down those walls with firm hands, but with gentle hands, for a child is very sensitive, and I am a child.

WHO AM I,  you may wonder?  I am every man, every woman, every child, every human that you meet! --Charles C. Finn (adapted)

We ALL share in the human experience don't we? Each one of us has a need to be loved, to be understood, and to be accepted.  And as part of this human family EACH ONE OF US -- regardless of who we are, where on this earth we may happen to live, or the color of our skin – also has a "desperate need"  for GOD -
for His LOVE, His MERCY and His GRACE!

Because of His great love for us (John 3:16), "the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to ALL men" (Titus 2:11).  Because of His great love for us, Christ "gave himself for us TO REDEEM us from all wickedness and TO PURIFY for Himself a people that are His very own, eager to do what is good" (Titus 2:14).  He paid the price for our condemning sin, so that YOU and I might find significance, belonging, purpose, and hope in Him.

We receive God’s MERCY and GRACE when we: place our trust in Him (Hebrews 11:6), repent of our sin (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), are baptized (immersed) in Jesus’ name for the forgiveness of sin (Acts 2:38), AND commit the rest of our lives to follow His will as revealed in His Word (1 John 1:7; Psalm 119:105).

Don’t be fooled!  We ALL need God! 

Will YOU accept His MERCY and GRACE?

God bless you!

-- David A. Sargent / Michael Eddlemon

Church of Christ at Creekwood 
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama  36695  

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