The Pain behind the Masks.

"I'’ll never be happy. I believe I'’ll die alone. I would want it that way. I've been a loner all my life with my secrets and my pain.
I'’m really lost, but I'’m trying to find myself."
Mike Tyson, USA Today, June 2, 2005

We may all agree, Mike Tyson has his issues and problems in life, but I couldn't believe his candor when I read this quote.

As I read this quote it reminded me of the drama that goes on behind the happy faces and content demeanors of the people around us. People are truly lost without Christ but it often takes a work of God and His Spirit to strip away all the distractions, masks and busyness that anesthetize us to our need for the One who created us.

Also, reading this quote reminded me to see people with spiritual eyes. If I met Mike Tyson on the street, first his size and big tattoo would scare me, second he probably would come across as a big jerk. But at his core, he, and all of us, are image bearers of God, we have value. And we are spiritual beings. As creatures, we long to know our creator. Blaise Pascal said it best, "There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus".

Mike Tyson needs Jesus. I need Jesus.