A True Reflection

I've had a sticky smudge across my bedroom mirror for a few weeks now and, in my laziness, I have just ignored it.

 

I kept forgetting it as it's only obvious when I'm sitting on my bed - I haven't really noticed it when I'm standing up at the mirror.

 

However, when I was sitting down, I couldn't really see myself properly.  I could still make myself out, but my image was blurred.  It wasn't a true reflection.

 

In the same way, my view of myself in a spiritual or emotional way is often blurred by 'smudges'.  Smudges caused by circumstances, or failures, or flaws, or doubts, or what others think of me, or even what I think others think of me.

 

They distort my image of myself.

 

And they are not a true reflection of how God sees me.

 

And sometimes they distort my image of God and His goodness and His faithfulness too.

 

Two nights ago as I sat on my bed I noticed the smudge on my mirror again, and something shifted this time; something roused me from my lazy apathy.  I got the polish and duster and vigorously cleaned the whole mirror.

 

Until I could see myself clearly.

 

In the same way, sometimes I need to give my spiritual 'mirror' a good clean to get rid of the dirt and grime that stops me from seeing myself the way that God does.

 

The Bible is clear about how precious and loved we are in God's sight, in spite of our faults and failings.  Paul writes,

"God chose you to be the holy people he loves."

[Colossians 3:12 NLT]

 

And Zephaniah describes God's love and delight in us -

 

          "He will take delight in you with gladness.
          With his love, he will calm all your fears.
          He will rejoice over you with joyful songs."

 

          [Zephaniah 3:17 NLT]

 

 

This is how I want to see myself.  This is what I want to see and know and believe when I look in the mirror.  I want to see myself the way God does.  But sometimes, in order to do that, we need to take a good long look at the mirror and give it a good clean first.

 

 

 

Old and New

One of the things that has made camping at Momentum much more bearable is the fact that I know someone with a shower.

A proper shower.

A warm shower, behind a door that locks, for which there is never a queue or a feeling of having to rush so the next person can use it. At Momentum, there is little more one could ask for in a shower.

And so every day I have managed to fit in a shower at some point and have been so grateful to scrub the mud from my body and to feel clean again.

However, after every shower, I have had to walk back to my own tent and, to do that, I have had to put my dirty clothes back on. They're not that dirty, but they're the clothes I had on before I had a shower.

Whilst I'm clean, it doesn't make sense to put old, unclean clothes on.

But how often do we do that as Christians? We have been made clean and have been offered new 'clothes', but we put on the 'clothes' of the old life again.

"You're done with that old life. It's like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you've stripped off and put in the fire. Now you're dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it ... So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offence. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.

[Colossians 3:9-14 MSG]

We have been washed and made clean by Jesus' blood, yet we often return to our old clothes: our old patterns of life, our old thoughts, our old addictions. But that's wrong. God has cleaned us up and has given us a new wardrobe. Let's wear it. Our old clothes have no use anymore.

So whilst I need mine to get back to my tent, in a spiritual sense, our old clothes are redundant.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

[2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV]

A Balanced Life

I am sure we are all familiar with the phrase "a work/life balance". 

However, I would venture to say that, whilst we are familiar with it in principle, it is rarely a reality in our lives.  Instead, for most of us, our lives are dominated by our work.  Far from the '9-5' cliché, we find our work encroaching on our evenings and our weekends.  With a growing trend in flexi-hours and working from home, we are now unable to easily separate these two aspects of our lives.

Sometimes I feel that my attempts at a work/life balance are rather like a fat kid on a see-saw.  They are unfairly weighted.  My life is dominated by my work, and my attempts at a 'life' are like the weasly kid suspended in the air at the other end of the see-saw.

This is something with which I have wrestled and struggled for a long while.

I felt that work was something to get through and something to endure until the weekend.  It was separated from the rest of my life and was of no importance to God.

But recently I feel that God has been showing me how important my work is, and how important work is to all of our lives.

God created Adam and Eve to work in the Garden of Eden.  Work wasn't a punishment, but a blessing:

      "God created human beings;

      he created them godlike,

      Reflecting God's nature.

      He created them male and female.

      God blessed them: 

      'Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!

      Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,

      for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.'"

     

      [Genesis 1:27-28 MSG]

God cares about my work along with all other aspects of my life: my friendships, my relationships, what book I'm reading, what film I'm watching, what I'm enjoying, what I'm struggling with. 

He cares about it all, and He wants us to acknowledge Him in it all.

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men."

[Colossians 3:23 NIV]

Rather than striving for a work/life balance, I am aiming for a balanced life.   A life balanced with work and relaxing and resting and playing and studying and relationship and solitude and eating and fasting and praying and thinking and indulging and refraining and talking and listening ...

A balanced life.