Characters in movies are just that: characters. They wear masks and assume other names, identities, and lives, all for the purpose of entertainment. When the curtains close, however, they return to their own lives. Many people walk around just as these characters do. They live pretending to be someone they aren’t. On the outside, it seems they have it all together, but deep down, they suffer, live secret lives, and desire to change but feel hopeless.
Interestingly, it can seem like a very lonely experience when, in fact, there is Someone who knows us better than we know ourselves. Someone who knows our deepest flaws, biggest mistakes, and regrets. In the Bible, there was a woman who was seemingly doing well but when her true life was revealed, she got an opportunity to change things.
Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.” (John 4: 13-18)
She lived a promiscuous life. She may have even looked well on the outside, but behind closed doors, her life was a different story, but Jesus knew. Perhaps this is your case. Outside you blend in with everyone else but deep within, you know the truth, and so does Jesus. He doesn’t condemn you for it. Instead, He offers you the same thing He offered to that woman thousands of years ago: Salvation. Today He is inviting you to stop pretending and start living.
May the God of the Bible bless you!
Bishop Bira Joshua