The reflection in the mirror by Deon Crafford

James 1:22-25 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

You can just about accept as a fact that 99.99% of us will not start a day in our lives without looking in a mirror. It is indeed a remarkable phenomenon, because it underlines how critically important it is for us to make sure that we appear as acceptable or attractive as possible to others out there. All this is driven by a set of societal norms that, fickle and shallow as they may be, still governs our thinking into the deepest of our being. Tell most people today that mirrors and reflections will no longer exist and you’re likely to see mass hysteria. Now James comes and he holds up a mirror of faith to us – not any faith, but our faith. And in that reflection he asks the question whether what we see aligns with what we believe and proclaim, or whether it represents a shocking dissonance. I for one am properly caught out. What I see in front of me may bear some resemblance to someone living in the faith in Christ, but it is nowhere near what the Sermon on the Mount, for example, guides me to. When we look in the mirror in the morning and see the bed-head of hair, a blemish on the skin, another wrinkle that sneaked up on us, our first response is correction or cover-up where possible. When James holds the mirror of faith to our hearts, there is no place to hide. We have to own up and then be man or woman enough to deconstruct the talk-the-talk faith I reflect, so that that the walk-the-walk love of Christ shall shine bright through me. Ultimately I want to embrace, not fear, the mirror of faith held up to me.

Love to all