What do you think?  Do you like color photographs or black and white?  For me, it depends.  For the right photo, a simple black and white rendition can be more compelling than the color version.   For instance, look at the picture below of a lakeside on a frosty morning in early fall.  Even without the color, you can see the glistening frost on the grasses and sunlit trees.  Kind of makes you want to go grab a sweater, yes?

Or maybe not.  Maybe adding a bit of color would tell a different story. 

O.k.  So it wasn't such a frosty morning after all.  It was a warm summery day.  But this simple visual exercise got me thinking.  I wonder how often we hide who we really are by stripping away the colors of our lives and only showing the essential "blacks and whites" of our existence.  Our Lord knew we'd need to be real with each other, honestly confiding, leaning, supporting, and yes, sometimes even confronting each other in order to encourage each other along the journey toward heaven. 

Philippians 2:1-2 states, "So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, ² complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. "

Wow!  What a mission!  Notice in verse 2 the words "in full accord."  Being that connected with the church family requires an openness that can only happen through honest connections with other followers. 

Yet, we have both instruction and an example of how to do this as we continue to read in that same passage:   ³ "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. ⁴ Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. ⁵ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

What will you do today to step out from behind your mask and love someone from a genuine heart?