More thoughts on the mirror

I have been so convicted by the statement from the skit guys "what do you see when you look in the mirror?" Here's the link to the video: http://www.tangle.com/view_video?viewkey=849dc7c803281df74bb2

Usually I am rolling on the floor laughing a good belly laugh when I watch the skit guys, but, this is one of their more serious clips! At Sr. High Bible study this morning, I talked about this video and proposed the question "What do you see when you look in the mirror?" to our youth and Pilgrim's youth. Do we see beauty? Do we see a great new haircut? Do we see our imperfections like something stuck in our teeth or a zit? Do we someone pretending to be something they are not?

James 1:23-24 tells us: "If you hear the message and don't obey it, you are like people who state at themselves in a mirror and forget what they look like as soon as they leave ...."

The bottom line is that we all have the imperfections, zits, warts, and bruises. If we don't look in the mirror then we'll never know they are there. That's the thing about mirrors (good ones anyways) - they always tell us the truth. Thanks wicked witch in snow white ... mirror, mirror on the wall. Let's be honest, when we look in the mirror, we're not always going to like what we see. But God does! And, I'm not convinced that God can see the imperfections. We know that God is Emmanuel or God with us. If we think, symbolically, of the zits and warts and imperfections as our sins, then I don't know that God can look on them. Sin is something that God forgives (if we ask) but it is also something that separates us from God. If God is a God with us then how can God check out those imperfections we see in the mirror? God loves us no matter how many zits we have!

And, there are a lot of mirrors / things that reflect our image in our lives (sybolically speaking, of course). Think about a spoon or aluminum foil or a puddle. The image we see there is not clear; it's blury. We can think of this like the world and culture - there's not necessarily a clear view of right and wrong. Think about a broken mirror. In this reflection, things aren't quite acurate all of the time or are distorted. It depends on your view or where you are standing and the reflection changes easily. This is like our friends. Think about a small mirror versus a full length mirror. The small mirror is good but you have to get close to see the strengths and weaknesses of your reflection. The small mirror is like the Bible.

I think what James is pointing out to us is that a "forgetful hearer" is someone who sees themseleves / God's reflection but then goes away and does nothing about it. In reality, we wouldn't walk away from a mirror and jjst forget what we look like or what we're wearing or which was we parted our hair. When we look in the mirror and we see a problem, we fix it. That's just like our Christian journey. When we look in the little mirror or the Bible and we see a problem, we should fix it (or at least try). We all have the zits and warts and imperfections, we always will. But using the small mirror, getting really close, in that we will be shown by God the way to fix those imperfections.

So, what do you see when you look in the mirror? Ultimately I pray it will be Jesus!