Have you looked in the mirror lately?

Have you looked in the mirror lately? Mirrors aren’t kind, but would you ever go out of the house without checking your appearance?

Memories

Whenever my grandmother got tickled, her giggle progressed up the scale until the sound muted and leaked right out of her eyes. En route to the punch line, we shared her contagious laughter. Besides, we had heard it before.

I smiled when the memory of one of my grandmother’s stories played in my mind after I stepped into the linen closet-sized elevator. Glancing over my shoulder, I jumped when I nearly backed into the woman. It took a second before I noticed she was my same height and wore identical clothes. I laughed at myself and the memory of the “Aunt Glendyl in the airport story.” She was shorter than me, a bit rounder and there was a hint of blue in her gray hair. It’s hard to imagine her traveling through the terminal, but as the story goes she sat down against a mirror, bumped against it, whirled around to her own reflection and excused herself to herself.

Maybe that’s not a bad idea.

Taking a good long look in the mirror, I concluded there is no excuse for myself to myself. Inventory is overdue.

Self-reflection

Life Action Ministries visited our church last week and the sanctuary was nearly filled for two weeks. We knelt by our seats, at the altar and received a challenged to pray at home first thing every morning. And I did. The first morning I woke up at 4:54 a.m. without an alarm. Cool, I got out of bed and participated in the “Holy Hour of Prayer” which always begins with confession. Next day, I woke up at exactly 4:54 a.m. and repeated a sweet time with the Lord. The third day I slept a little later, had an early meeting at work and cut my prayer time short. Ditto for day four. Then I went on an extended vacation and confession went straight out my window with the magnificient view.

Jam packed

I like to see it all, do it all, eat it all, twice, including gelato which may mean I need a new wardrobe if I don’t come home soon. There is no space in my stomach, my suitcase or my day. Though I packed my prayer journal, it didn’t come out of my bag for a week. Traveling 5,000 miles away from home, I also moved away from God. Thankfully He follows me around.

Psalm 139:7, “I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence!” NLT

Though I run from God, He follows me around

Mirror time

I doubt many of us relish our reflections, yet, we use magnifying mirrors to check for flaws and buy products to cover them. Most of us thicken our eyelashes and thin our eyebrows. We stand in front a full length mirror and crane our necks to check behind. Then we dash out the door without the least concern for our spiritual blemishes. It’s no wonder we forget who we are.

James 1:23-24, “Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his own face in a mirror. For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.” HCSB

Eventually, we bump into ourselves and realize it’s time to say, “Oh, I’m so sorry.”

Psalm 139:32, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me and know my thoughts.” KJV

Say what?

That’s a bold prayer. Asking God to know my thoughts? Uh, I’m not sure about that, but He knows all my secret sins and hidden thoughts anyway. He waits to cover every flaw with the blood of Christ.