Who are you when no one is around?

Walking through a department store recently I heard the old Billy Joel song "Stranger" and it sparked my thinking.  In the song Mr. Joel sang about the masks that we all wear at times. The implication is that we do not reveal our true selves to anyone, ever. We instead wear the mask, the faces of the stranger, that we feel will most fit the situation we are in or the crowd we are with.  

I attended the funeral of a very well respected Indiana minister this past week.  I listened as several people spoke of his life, and the impact he had on their lives.  His children, a grandchild, and fellow ministers stood one by one and told of his integrity, his uniqueness, his knowledge of Scripture, his living of Christlike character.  I wondered as they spoke, what would be said of me if it were my lifeless body in the casket up front. What would my wife, children, friends, colleagues, etc. say about me?

Then today as I sat alone in my office (the heavy snow fall and high winds had sent everyone else home early) the thought hit me, who am I when no one else is around? Who am I when it is just me and God?  Now don't get me wrong, I definitely want my wife, sons, friends, colleagues, etc. to like me, to respect me, to think well of me, but more than all of them, I want God to be pleased with me. So I must guard my life: my words, my eyes, my thoughts, my hands, my everything. I, like all the rest of us humans, will continue to wear the masks, the faces of the stranger, before others, but there are no masks with God. He sees us as we really are... Amazingly He loves, and likes us anyway.