Have you ever heard the name Andre Agassi? 

If you haven’t let me fill you in. 

 Andre is regarded as one of the best professional tennis players of all time. He went pro in 1986 and retired in 2006 and during that time he became the world number 1 tennis player, winning eight major championships, 2nd place in 7 others, olympic gold medals, and is in the tennis hall of fame. He played singles tennis throughout his career, so this says a lot about his incredible athletic abilities. 

And not only all of this, but he was known for this look. He was one of the first tennis players to become a bit of an icon based on his look alone. He wore bright colored shoes and outfits, gold chains, and of course had a huge flowing mullet. He became such an icon in the world of tennis that girls would flock to the matches just to catch a glimpse of him playing. He was a rockstar as far as the tennis world was concerned.  

But in 1990, something interesting took place. He played against Andres Gomez (which is confusing) in the 1990 French Open (which is a big deal) and… he lost. But not because of his abilities (he was clearly talented) or even his opponent (who only made it to this level of tennis playing a few times in his career). But it was because Andre was distracted. 

You see, Andre was holding a big lie. There was an underlying stress that got so bad during this match that it completely threw him off of his game and he lost on this world stage. He had a secret. Something that the rest of the world didn’t know and he was so petrified of anyone finding out that at this point in 1990 he had been hiding it for almost 2 years, and would go on to hide it for another 5 years.  

 The secret?  

Andre’s amazing flowing mullet was a wig. 

And the night before, alone in his hotel room thousands of miles away from home, his wig began to fall apart. So instead of resting and preparing for this huge match in his career, he was up all night trying to glue, patch, and fix his beloved hairpiece. 

Now, I’m not sure who is reading this right now, but I’m going to assume that you aren’t bald and wearing a wig that’s a secret from millions of people who are watching you play tennis. But I can assume something… you’ve carried secrets too. You have tried to get by with half truths, or blatant lies about who you are, and it can feel like you are one mistake away from everyone finding out the truth.  And that weight gets really heavy after a while, doesn’t it? The constant daily baggage of hiding something about yourself is a tough one to smile through sometimes, and yet so many of us fall victim to this way of life. 

What if I told you that this is not how it’s supposed to be?
Wired into each and every human being due to the image of God in us is the desire to be fully known and fully loved. Just think about it. When you come across those relationships in your life where people know everything about you (even the bad stuff) and choose to love you anyway, is there anything better? When we can fully be ourselves around other people and know that we’re safe enough it’s like a breath of fresh air to our souls. And the reason why all of us desire this whether we admit it or not is because we are made in God’s image. And God loves us so much that He sent His Son Jesus to die for our sins and through belief in Him we can be fully known and still fully loved by the God of the universe. Our internal search for peace and a place to drop all of our baggage can be found in God’s love for us. 

And when we find this rest and peace in God’s love, it overflows into our relationships with the other people in our life. And that is the secret to becoming all that God has called us to be.