Sometimes looking in the mirror is painful… please, keep all jokes to yourself right now. Seriously, being faced with the reality of yourself, either at a given time or circumstance, or with your life as an entirety, is painful. Daily we look into the mirror and spend a few minutes brushing our hair or shaving, and if you’re a woman, putting on layers of make-up. Some do this to hide the ugliness of our physical bodies, others do it to accentuate the beauty that already exists (my wife being a perfect example!).
But when we are forced to look into the mirror that looks deeper than the physical, I’m afraid we all need a little make up. I try my best to be a person who bestows on you a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair (Isaiah 61). I honestly take my relationships very seriously and try and help people see the beauty they don’t see in themselves. And where there is mourning, I try and find hope. I try to look at people as if they are a blank canvas of which I am free to paint however I want — I call my blog “People are my art” for this very reason. I write on my about page, “And with all of the colors of the world and of the Word, I will do my best to create great art. Because there is nothing more beautiful than when we are a reflection of our creator, for we are all the canvas of Him.” With every experience and encounter, we have a choice to paint the picture how Christ would paint or how the world would paint. Christ sees us and bestows a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the world, well, you know that story…
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” (James 1:22-24)
And so when I forget what I am supposed to look like, when I forget that I have the paint brush in my hand, and I begin to paint wrecklessly and I stand back and see what an ugly picture I’ve created, I’m forced to try and start over. Painting on a blank canvas is often much easier than painting on one that has all sorts of colors already on it – colors of which I’ve carelessly thrown on.
The beauty, however, of looking deeply into the mirror is that you are forced to be uncomfortable with yourself for a moment. And you can either turn from the mirror and ignore the ugliness within yourself, within myself, or I can choose to correct it. I know that correcting it isn’t a one time deal, it’s a lifetime of experiences, but we at least have to start somewhere.
Face the mirror before you start painting on someone else.
1 Comment
September 30, 2008 at 7:59 am
good stuff Joe…so have you read the book True Faced? It deals a lot with this aspect of intently looking into who you are and living out of who we really are (in Jesus) and not playing the game of having to wear make-up…or masks. later!