The Mirror

I can remember being a 16 year old wannabe rock star. I would stand in front of a mirror with my guitar, seeing myself as Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, or some other 60's "guitar god." I tried to see myself as them, but there was a real problem. In trying to see them I couldn't really see myself, who was in reality, a very mediocre guitarist. Try as I might, what I was seeing would never be them. The reflection would always be a very flawed image. I couldn't see them, and I couldn't see myself either.

I think in many ways this is the same thing we do in our relationship with Christ. We look at Him, seeking to imitate Him, but somehow, in all of our looking, we never seem to really see Him. As Thom Gardner puts it in Living The God Breathed Life, "We've been so concerned with how we look in God's eyes that we have failed to look into God's eyes. There is too often something like a mirror between our face and His, and we're the ones who put it there." When I would look into the mirror with my guitar, I was always wondering how I would look to those I imagined I was playing before. My focus was completely on myself. In the same way, with Jesus, we're always thinking about how our lives look to Him. We want to be sure that our "performance" is pleasing to Him. We want to please Him, but not for the joy it will bring Him, but for the sense of satisfaction it will bring us. At root, this is much more about religion than relationship. I Corinthians 13:12 says, "Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then, face to face." We're not to live in a mirror relationship with Him, which is no relationship at all, but in a face to Face, presence to Presence walk with Him. It's about deep, abiding, growing, day by day intimacy with Him. It's about living in the inheritance, the riches that we have in Christ the King, and that can never be when we live our lives in a mirror.

I once wrote about the difference between living as spiritual orphans and and as true sons and daughters of the Promise. An orphan would be like me, standing in front of a "mirror," practicing all their moves, hoping to impress, be noticed, and be like the One they played for, performed for.....yet never really connecting with Him on any level. The true children would be those who see Him face to face and know Him heart to heart. The focus is not on "What does He want me to do?", but on, "Who does He want me to be?" 

Some years back the question, "What Would Jesus Do?", was asked everywhere in the church, yet Christ Himself never had to ask this question of His Father. He said, "I only do that which I see My Father in heaven doing." He could do that because as He often said, "I am in My Father, and my Father is in Me." So too is it for all who have received Him in Spirit and Truth. They never lost sight of each other. Jesus always saw and knew His Father, who always was seeing Him. We, as sons and daughters, have been adopted into that same depth of relationship. It's the fruit of our inheritance in Jesus Christ.

So, what will it be for you, and for me as well? More time in front of our religious mirror, practicing our religious moves? Or do we live face to Face, heart to Heart, life to Life with and in Him? Will we live in His Presence, or......in a mirror?

Blessings,

Pastor O