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Introducing Me to Me - Part 5
by Jerry Ousley In part 2 of this series we talked about what we see when we first get up in the morning and take a look in the mirror. My first reaction is to look around behind me and make certain that there isn't something big and ugly standing back there because that just can't be my reflection I'm seeing. But it is. When we take that first look in the mirror wouldn't it be great if we could just take a paint brush or crayon and draw on the mirror covering up what we see? We could make our hair prettier and if we have bald spots we could just fill them in; paint out some of those wrinkles well while we're at it we'll just get rid of all of them. Yeah, this is working nicely! Now to get rid of those "love handles" I see in there; a six pack would look real good on me. I could also use a few muscles. There we go. Now all I have to do is to just make sure I stand in the same place each morning and it's all taken care of. Yeah, right! Who am I fooling anyway? I may be more presentable when I look in the mirror I've made for myself but all of that stuff I wanted to change or get rid of is still right there. That's a silly way of getting rid of it isn't it? Of course it won't work. But in life this is exactly what many of us try to do. Now don't get me wrong; I'm not in any way saying that we shouldn't color our hair, wear a wig or toupee, and have cosmetic surgery done or anything like that. These are life choices that each individual has to make for themselves. The fact is however that these physical things we do to improve the way we look can't hide what's on the inside of us. That doesn't keep us from trying. A lot of people, and especially Christian people, attempt to hide what's in there. We are experts at coming up with excuses, justifying ourselves and covering up who we really are. Well I've got a bit of hard news for all of us What's on the inside will eventually come out. It leaks between our words, taints our jokes and pokes its head out when we aren't looking. We might think we're keeping deep dark secrets but one day we will be exposed. So what are we to do about it? The answer is a little thing I've been calling "Introducing Me to Me." In order to really change the way we look on the inside we've got to face who we really are. We've got to stop making excuses and hiding behind our self-justification and own up to our flaws and imperfections. We've all got them whether we want to admit it or not. Paul recognized this very fact and I believe had it in mind when he wrote 1 Corinthians 11:31 which says, "For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged." In other words we need to introduce me to me. We need to look in God's spiritual mirror and see ourselves for who we really are. Also it's one thing to know that we have improvements, repairs, and replacements to make and another to actually make them. It's kind of like the guy with the leaky roof. When asked why he hadn't fixed it yet he said, "Well when the sun's shining it don't leak. And when it is raining it's too wet to climb up there and fix it." We put it off or ignore it. That's a lot easier to do. But if we really want to see our lives change then we've got to roll up our shirt sleeves and prepare to get dirty because introducing me to me can be a very messy job. It hurts to acknowledge that we aren't right about things; it is painful to say, "You know, I'm not such a nice guy after all." But when we do, especially when we do it with prayer while allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us, we'll see changes that will make us not only a better person to those around us but also to God. That's the most important reason of all. We were made to praise Him and to bring Him pleasure. Can you even imagine how much pleasure it brings to God to see His children changing their lives because they love Him? Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge. Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |