WHAT A MIRROR CAN TELL YOU…

AS a favor to people, I always discreetly tell them if they have some obstruction like sleep in their eye, lipstick on their teeth, food in their beard, etc.  In my opinion, it should be a common courtesy.

Several years back, it was my friend Nick’s wedding day. I was best man, so that gives you a lot of privileges like backstage access to the food at the reception even hours before the food can legally be consumed.  It also puts you in charge of the groom like, being a gopher, dealing with last minute details so that he doesn’t have to stress, and, of course, making sure he shows up.

The day of the wedding was going very smoothly. I was giving him a ride to the wed­ding and making small talk so that he remained at ease.  As we were talking, I was noticing something in the corner of my eye. It was enough to gain my attention that I kept looking at him as I was driving.  Suddenly I shrieked, “Holy cow, Nick!  You’ve got nose hairs sticking out of your left nostril!”

“What?” Nick responded with a confused look on his face and grabbed the rearview mirror turning it his direction so that he could make a keen observation.  “Oh, it’s not that bad.”

“What do you mean ‘it’s not that bad?’ It looks like you’ve got a Granddaddy Longlegs stuck up your nose.  You gotta do something about that thing!”

Nick didn’t have any tweezers on him. What man does?  So he’s pushing up the left side of his nose to expose the middle shaft of the nosehair while creating a larger space for his thumb and index finger.

I did what I could to help and lend moral support. I even pulled out my Panasonic Camcorder – not the small kind either – to document the event.  All the while, I’m try­ing to drive down I-10 in New Orleans.

After numerous unsuccessful attempts at pluckage, we finally made it to the hall, and the best man was forced to lead a covert operation of looking for tweezers for the groom. I’m happy to say that I successfully tracked down a pair; the follicles were removed; the wedding went on as planned, and they lived happily ever after.

Mirrors are great aren’t they?  Most bathrooms have them, because those periodic moments in the day are great, convenient times to take a closer look and see what the rest of the world is seeing when you’re not looking.  They can show you flaws that sometimes you’re not even aware of.

But do you know what mirrors are really bad at doing?  In Nick’s case, it could show him the nosehair protruding out of his nostril; it could help him locate it, but it was terrible at helping him remove it. That’s not really surprising is it?  I mean, we all know what the function of a mirror is.

I love the fact that in James 1:23, the writer uses this powerful imagery of a mirror.

Anyone who listens to the word [ or in this Scriptural context, you could use the words “law,” “rules,” “Christian morals,” or “principles” ]  and does not do what is says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror, and after looking at himself, goes away and forgets what he looks like.

Here’s the way that I understand this: Rules or Christian values act like a mirror.  They can show you something in your life that needs to be changed, but they can’t clean you up. It doesn’t matter how well you follow the rules, they can never change who you are inside.

Of course, if you’ve been in church for any length of time, we sure do talk about those things like they are the priority. Like they still really mean something.  And as much as they’ve been talked about, shoved in our face and down our throats, the lives of Christians are still going down the toilet.

A lot of Christians on the whole don’t feel a whole lot different than they did in their pre-Christian days.  They struggle with the same things that used to beat them over the head in the old days. Morally, they’re pretty much the same as well.  I was up close and personal with this reality for most of my days working in youth ministry. Some 80% of teenagers walk away from church by the time they graduate from high school.  It’s been the dirty little secret of youth ministry for years.  Christian teenag­ers lie as much, drink as much, and have sex as much as non-Christians.  There’s almost no moral difference.

Honestly though, I don’t think their parents are any better.  There is just as much porn addiction, infidelity, and an even higher divorce rate among Christian adults as non-Christians.

The answer that the Church has had is blaming immoral culture. Let’s blast the cul­ture because of all its evil influences.  Let’s vote on resolutions to ban same-sex marriages; let’s protest the removal of the 10 Commandments in Alabama. We’re los­ing America because we’ve lost our morals.  Let’s teach kids to defend their faith.  Let’s send them off on mission trips; get them doing more things.

It’s not working, is it?  And that’s because the basic design of the law was never meant to change anyone, nor was it to make more committed followers of Christ.

Long before we knew Jesus and the Holy Spirit, God instituted something that we’ve come to know as the law.  The law – this standard for being righteous (or “right”) in God’s eyes wasn’t a bad thing.  But its purpose was never really to make people in right standing with God. Instead, it was supposed to show us our dire need for God. As Paul put it, the law “was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.”

Stepping into a relationship with Jesus was supposed to be the beginning of experi­encing freedom.  It was never meant to re-introduce nor re-impose the law on us.  America will not be saved by Christian values.  The law doesn’t save people.  Jesus does.  Rules will not create more committed followers of Christ because it is powerless to change people.  Only Jesus can change people.

What we are talking about here really is a basic heart issue isn’t it?  And that change can only occur through a relationship with Jesus.  The problem is that the primary relationship that that we as Christians have is with a set of morals, values, disci­plines, a system of interpretive rules and traditions, and even with a Book rather than with a Person.

Law is weak and unfulfilling.  One might wonder why we would pursue it rather than running after God.  I think it’s because it’s a lot easier to conform and adapt to a list of rules than it is to commit to a relationship with a person.

THE KITCHEN CABINETS OF LIFE

I honestly believe that the change that God chose to bring in our lives as Christians was not so that we would have longer lists and thicker, darker, Marks-a-lot bounda­ries in our lives.  In fact, as I walk this thing out, I see Jesus taking an eraser to the boundaries in my life and eliminating the lines that were once drawn either by reli­gious law or the compulsion of other people.

When I say stuff like God taking away boundaries, it always makes people nervous.  Some people get defensive and angry. To some, it’s borderline heresy. “God’s not go­ing to take the boundaries off our lives.  The rules are good. We’re just bad.”

Let me clarify this: I’m not saying that there is no black and white when it comes to moral behavior.  I’m also not saying that we can just go out and live how we please.

We’re so uncomfortable with all the gray areas in the Bible that we often feel it neces­sary to draw these bold, dark lines around things, so we don’t screw up.

Much more than right and wrong, we’re even more uncomfortable with our responsi­bility to choose.  Let’s face it: most of life is gray, so God really left a lot of empty blanks when it came to living it.

I think about our kids when they were little and in the “gettin’ into everything” stage. If you’re not a parent yet, it’s the stage when a child first gets mobile and you line everything with a 3-inch thick strip of grey foam, put breakables at least 4 feet high, and you use these inconvenient little clips on your kitchen cabinets that cause adults more personal injury mashing fingers than they probably have ever prevented.

Child-proofing a house is no way to live.  It’s a stressful, deliberate action.  As a par­ent, you long for the day when your child no longer desires to open a cabinet and drink toxic chemicals.

I think that’s a perfect picture of where God chooses to bring us.  Rather than run­ning prevention programs and legislating morality, God knew the only way to truly change what we were doing was to change our hearts.  If our hearts were changed, then our desires would be changed.

How would God do this? Well, not to be terribly repetitive, He began this work with love.  In Romans 2:4, it says that it is God’s loving kindness that leads to repentance.  We change our minds and do what’s right because we are loved.

God believed that if He could infiltrate people’s hearts, if people really knew how He felt about them, if they experienced His love, they would change.

But God didn’t stop there; He wasn’t done working inside the heart.

Jeremiah 31:33

But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

It’s better than law that goes out of style or seemingly needs amendments and up­dates, God chose to literally write His law into the very hearts of His people.  He no longer needed to lock things down to keep us out of trouble. He would remind us in our very being.

Jessica and I have this deal as husband and wife that if I ever say or do anything stupid in public that she’ll let me know in a very subtle, gentle way. This was my wife’s suggestion, because she always wanted to be respectful even when I make a mistake in the presence of other people.  We’ve grown to know each other so well over the years that I can tell by a certain look on her face that’s undetectable by the com­mon person.  Sometimes I’m not that aware, and Jessica will gently lay her hand on my leg or grab my hand.

I’ve noticed that God works in very much the same way with me.  Rather than beating me over the head or berating me, there is a gentle impression on my heart of not just wrong but what is the right thing to do.

But God doesn’t stop there, because what is the law except for a mirror?  It examines us, but it is powerless to change us.  Here’s how God works that out in us:

Ezekiel 11:19

And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will

take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh…

God gives us a new heart with His law – the ability to see and know right and wrong – and He places within our hearts His Spirit.

John 6:63

It is the Spirit who gives life…

We are unable to change ourselves.  Sometimes God shows us the things that we are supposed to do and even avoid and honestly, we are powerless on our own to do the right thing.  He doesn’t leave us alone.  He doesn’t call us to be a different kind of people and leave us powerless to act on it.  Instead He infuses us with His power – the same power that enabled Christ to live through temptation, heal people, defeat Satan, and overcome even death – God’s Spirit is power.  It is access for us to become people that we never could have become on our own.

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