Mirror, Mirror, on the wall

The young man boasted of his prowess on the basketball court. I smiled. He was not as good as he claimed. How did I know? The week before he was cut from the team! But, somehow he had forgotten that, preferring to believe in his own reality. This refusal of the facts is a common malady among us, so common that Jesus talked about the foolishness of trying to take the splinter out of another’s eye with a post in our  own!

A common criticism of Christians is that we are hypocrites, ready to point out the sins and failures of others, but unable to see the holes in our own robes of righteousness. Spiritual pride is a terrible disease of the soul, isn’t it? I know it grips me from time to time. I hear myself ranting about ‘those people who do those things,’ and feel the rebuke of the Holy Spirit. We need not apologize for holiness. But, Christians cannot point others in the right direction, they must lead them! Paul invited those to whom he preached to follow in his footsteps. “Follow me as I follow Christ,” he said. I want to say that and I know that such a statement in the absence of humility and authenticity is the height of arrogance.

But, when we are obediently walking with Christ, when we are broken before Him, yielded to His will, and responsive to the Spirit; a beautiful wholeness of life emerges in us and from us. It is not born of our own religiosity, but created by the Spirit who lives in us, by faith. This undeniable reality will draw others to Him. Last year, I attended a talk given by Timothy Keller, pastor of a flourishing church in Manhattan. He used a phrase that has stayed with me. True Christians have a “contextualized Biblical Gospel” that shapes their daily lives. They will not allow the Gospel of Christ to exist only on Sundays, or in their private quiet times of prayer. They drag it out from behind the pulpit into to the street where it confronts the evil that enslaves. This Gospel lives in our checkbook, speaks to our relationships, and shapes our political view.

This kind of Gospel will not allow us to be hypocritical! It is, by the power of the Spirit, a transformational experience, working powerfully from the inside out. Jesus said it is like a seed that germinates and pushed to the surface, growing until it bears fruit.

Here is the word from the Word. It challenges us to live authentically, starting with knowing ourselves.

"Don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like." (James 1:22-24, NLT)

"But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action. Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world." (James 1:24-27, The Message)

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Be Thou my vision

O Lord of my heart

Naught be all else to me

Save that Thou art

Thou my best thought

By day or by night

Waking or sleeping

Thy presence my light

Be Thou my wisdom

Be Thou my true Word

I ever with Thee

And Thou with me Lord

Thou my great Father

I Thy true son

Thou in me dwelling

And I with Thee one

Riches I heed not

Nor man's empty praise

Thou mine inheritance

Now and always

Thou and Thou only

Be first in my heart

High King of heaven

My treasure Thou art

High King of heaven

When vict'ry is won

May I reach heaven's joys

O bright heaven's Sun

Heart of my own heart

Whatever befall

Still be my vision

O Ruler of all

Be Thou My Vision
© Public Domain

Eleanor Henrietta Hull | Mary Elizabeth Byrne