Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall

Issues – January 2021 – Grace & Truth Magazine

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall

Mirrors are important. It’s sad that at my age I’m barely learning this. All my life I have had a mirror, one way or another, available to use. My mom always said I was a handsome kid, and I was fond of confirming that in a mirror.

Well, the cells at this prison lack many things, including mirrors. So, men here often go by “feel.” If I “feel” like I look okay, then I must be okay. I wash, shave and brush my teeth, so I must be looking okay, right?

Sadly, I learned that my “feeler” is very broken. For ten full days I walked to chow, visited the doctor’s office, participated at the Christian circle, and even spoke to the captain asking for a clerk’s job. Everyday I was confident that the “handsome kid” was looking just right. Nobody said differently, until a good friend and brother in the Lord pulled me to the side and said I looked “crazy.”

Huh? “What do you mean?” I asked him. He told me that words could not begin to describe the horror I sported on my face.

“I’ll send to you my small acrylic mirror for a day; you’ll see what I am talking about,” he said gently while he softly patted my hand as if comforting me over the bad news. About an hour later, his mirror was slid under my cell door. I jumped up, picked it up, ran under our horrible light – and screamed!

Oh my! My face was dry and looked awful. Small patches of dry skin were clumped in semi circles around my forehead, cheeks and neck. A weird, long hair grew out of the top of my nose. Thick, dark clumps of hair shot out like roots searching for water from the inside of my nose. My lips were more than chapped, as if I had been in the middle of a desert for years. And to top it off, somehow even with every-other day shavings I managed to miss a spot on my neck, leaving a patch of hair that was mysteriously shaped like a heart.

I was horrified. I sat on my bunk, mirror in hand, and said goodbye to the handsome kid I thought I was. Since then, I’ve borrowed the mirror every other day to make me not so scary looking, but at least human. However, all this made me think of our spiritual lives.

The book of James tells us that we must be doers of the Word, because if we do not do as the Word says, it is like looking in a mirror, seeing the ugly and just walking away without doing anything about it (1:23-25).

At that time I had been moved. My property was delayed and I did not have my Bible yet. But, I was feeling okay about the missed reading. I thought I knew enough about the Word to go a few long days without reading it. I felt I was being friendly, kind, loving, non-selfish – basically the perfect Christian to all those around me. However, the mirror incident made me reconsider. So I asked around to see who could let me borrow a Bible until I received my own. After asking a handful of men, I found a brother who had two and could let me use one. A few hours later, he sent it to my door.

Once I finally got my hands on the Bible, I started to read it as I normally do. It seemed the Holy Spirit within me led me to read 2 Corinthians 6. Ouch! Then I had the strangest desire to read 1 John 1–2. Double ouch! It went on like this for three hours. After looking at the Word – my spiritual mirror – for that time, all I could do was sit back on my bunk and weep. I wept because I was now seeing how I was failing, allowing my “feelings” to guide me instead of the Word, for even thinking that I was “holy” enough to live a single day without reading His Word – the mirror of my real life. What pride I had.

I am sure glad the Father loves me enough – even though I don’t deserve it – to have caused me to be physically ugly to get my attention about my spiritual ugly. I am also glad He used the men He did to let me borrow their mirrors, because without them I would have continued to strut my stuff. What an ugly sight that would have been.

If you have not made looking in the spiritual mirror – reading the Word – part of your daily schedule, you are probably walking around in a horrible state of ugly, even if you are feeling pretty. Don’t let your feeling fool you. Pick up the mirror and look at it; like me, you just might be surprised at what you find.

Mere hearers of the Word deceive themselves. We must look into the perfect law of liberty and continue in it. This one will be blessed in what he does.

The Christian principle of biblical authority is based on the truth that God is the author of the Bible and has given it to direct the belief and behavior of His people. Our ideas about God and our practices should be measured against the Bible’s teachings. Often we will find that our ideas are being corrected by His Word. Authority is the right to command, and God has chosen to rule over us by the truth and wisdom He has given us in the Scriptures.

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17 NKJV).

By Adrian Torres

Anyone who hears the Word but does not change his behavior is like a man who takes a fleeting glance in the mirror each morning then completely forgets what he saw. He derives no benefit from the mirror or from looking into it. Of course there are some things about our appearance that cannot be changed, but at least we should be humbled by the sight of them. When the mirror says, “Wash” or “Shave” or “Comb” or “Brush,” we should do as we are told, otherwise the mirror is of no practical benefit to us. It is easy to read the Bible casually or because of a sense of duty without being affected by what we read. We see what we ought to be but quickly forget and live as if we were already perfect. This type of self-satisfaction prevents spiritual progress. In contrast is the man who looks into the Word of God and who habitually reduces it to practice. His contemplative, meditative gazing has practical results in his life. To him, the Bible is the perfect law of liberty. Its precepts are not burdensome. They tell him to do exactly what his new nature loves to do. As he obeys, he finds true freedom from human traditions and carnal reasoning. The truth makes him free. This is the man who benefits from the Bible. He does not forget what he has read. Rather, he seeks to live it out in daily practice. His simple childlike obedience brings incalculable blessing to his soul. This one will be blessed in what he does. —William MacDonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary,
comments on James 1:23-25.