Tip of My Iceberg

When two favorite characters are unicorns and Peppa the Pig, it becomes a challenge to know how to decorate. For a four-year-old, you don’t choose. You do it all.

With Kolly, passions are part of her life. When she couldn’t decide on the theme for her family party, she asked if she could have both.

How do you say no to a puppy-eyed four-year-old?

Aunt Tiffany, our resident cake decorator, made a cake with both unicorns and Peppa on it. It was beautiful!

What was more spectacular was wearing gear that made us each look like a cross between a pig and a unicorn. A unipig. Or pigicorn.

Pretending was fun because we each came up with a unique snorting/neighing sound that sounded dreadful. Like snot wads being blown all over the house.

Pretending is fun because it allows us to step out of our own character, our own identity, to be something we’re not.

The rise of social media has created an increase in the need to be seen as something more than we are. I have friends who are on dating apps who have quit participating because they’re discovering that the people they’re in communication with aren’t who they say they are. We spend so much time on our image management that we often lose sight of who we really are.

What’s encouraging is the reality that young people today are yearning for authenticity. Gen Z’s and Gen Alphas are seeking truth and honesty with an intensity that hasn’t been seen for quite some time. They’re tired of duplicitous words and actions and want to know what’s real and what isn’t.

Often, people who pretend to be what they’re not are called hypocrites or two-faced. It refers to the Roman god Janus, who had two faces, one at the front and one at the back. Their opinions and attitudes differed, saying one thing to one person and something totally different to another.

The Bible has quite a few two-faced people, often those who put on a different persona to get what they want. The Pharisees, religious leaders, were great examples of this.

To become a Pharisee, a Jewish man had to join a “haburah”, or brotherhood, with the promise to strictly observe the Levitical purity laws and to follow the 613 laws that reflected the written and oral laws of their faith. It was a rigorous and detailed commitment that was perfected over years of practice.

When Jesus came preaching a gospel of grace and forgiveness, it bothered these religious leaders because they were the identity of the rules and traditions of the Jewish faith. Ultimately, both Jesus and the religious leaders were seeking to help the people grow closer to God. The Pharisees did it by “doing”; Jesus did it by offering grace and forgiveness.

Jesus saw the Pharisees as two-faced and hypocritical in their demands of the people, demands they couldn’t keep themselves.

“What sorrow awaits you, teachers of religious law, and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy–full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisees! First, wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean too.” Matthew 23:25-26

These religious leaders worked hard at appearing holy, with their robes and ceremonial washings. But their lives didn’t reflect true faith.

We all have times when we lie or deceive others for our own benefit. But God sees us fully; we can’t hide anything from Him. Jesus even told those following Him that not everyone who called themselves a Christian would actually have access to heaven. Who we are is characterized more by our heart attitudes than the religious actions we produce.

Pretending to be pigs and unicorns is good fun. Pretending to follow Jesus without a committed heart is duplicitous. We can’t lie to ourselves about what we believe. And we don’t fool Jesus with empty activities.

Eternity isn’t pretend.