Image Management

Image. As human beings, our natural tendency is to try to maintain our image before God and especially before others. In his new book Wild Goose Chase, Mark Batterson talks about a fascinating matrix on human personality called the Johari Window. It is made up of four quadrants.

"The arena quadrant consists of the things you know about you and others know about you. This is your public persona. The blind spot quadrant consists of the things others know about you but you don't know about you. This is where you need friends who have the courage to confront. The facade quadrant consists of the things you know about you but others don't know about you. This is where you hide who you really are. And the unknown quadrant consists of things you don't know about you and others don't know about you. This is where the Holy Spirit plays a vital role in your life."

Mark comments that we as Christians often get caught up in the facade quadrant and I completely agree. For some reason, we feel as if we need to keep up some type of perfect image before our friends and before God. The problem with this is that confession of sin is an important part of our ability to become free from the snares of the enemy.

James 5:16 says, "Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with (Msg.)."

Let's never forget that God is a God who wants to make us into a new creation. This is an initial work, but it's also a process we go through until we reach perfection and none of us have arrived yet! Let's be real with each other, pray for each other, and release God's work in our lives, church and our community. In this way we will defeat the Enemy and avoid the burden and trap of image management.

I ran across a great song about all of this called Perfect People. Give it a listen!

http://www.imeem.com/jetstream88/music/S4i2CEuA/natalie_grant_perfect_people/