I used to have these nightmares—I was being chased by someone in a white mask. I never understood what they meant until I came out of hiding, got to truly know the Lord and myself, and started to let people in. Only then was it that God revealed to me: it was my soul that was running, and the scary person in the mask was my earthly body. I realized I was running from myself.

This person in the mask was just trying to find their soul, but that soul kept running. So, for a long time, the mask stayed on, because that soul—the truth—is the only one that could remove it.

We as humans are all seeking something: truth—the truth of life, the truth of ourselves. But we run. We hide. We put on a mask and forget who we really are. We become distracted by the voices in our heads, the voices of others, trying to please, trying to fit in, trying to be accepted. We fear not only rejection by others but rejection by ourselves as well. In doing so, we learn to hide and choose the path of least resistance. We avoid the lessons God wants us to learn. We choose to stay in our comfort zones.

What is it you’re running from? What is it you’re hiding from? How does fear impact your life?

Ask the Lord to help you take off the mask. Ask Him to reveal to you who you are. I’m here today to encourage you to do the hard thing. Face your fears; don’t resist the learning experiences God has for you. Stand in your truth, in God’s truth. Be a light to others. My church home, my friendships, my career, even this blog are all fruit of my own advice. These things are examples of what happened for me when I faced my fears and took off my mask.

Several years after having these recurrent nightmares every few months or so, I made a groundbreaking discovery: I had the power—the power to wake myself up. It was around the time of this discovery I learned I had the power to not only wake from those nightmares but all of my nightmares. When I’m in the middle of an unpleasant dream, if it’s scary enough, bad enough, I realize it’s not real, and I wake myself up. Why? Because I know nothing is that bad anymore. I have the true and living God dwelling within my heart, and He is with me through everything.

When someone comes to know the goodness of God, truly seeking after Him, and not just calling themselves a Christian, they begin to realize nothing is really ever as bad as it seems. They begin to realize God is ever present and lives inside of them. They wake up from the nightmare, the real nightmare, which is existing in a world without Him.

I don’t have those nightmares anymore, and I think I figured out why. The message, the purpose of those dreams finally got across. I realized I was not only able to wake myself up from the dream itself but also wake up to a new reality; I had the power to change. I took off the mask, and I let people in, I let myself in. I realized God dwells in my heart and no weapon formed against me will prosper. God has a plan for me, and no amount of rejection or pain could ever change that. I realized even rejection itself is a part of God’s plan to draw out the ones not called to our lives and draw in the ones that are. Fear no longer has a place in my soul.

After all of my running, I realized it was time to stop running from something and start running towards something—the truth behind the mask.