The Mirror
I was skimming headlines a few days ago and noticed a story about some activists on a college campus who were planning to cover all of the school’s mirrors for a day. I did not read long enough to see why they wanted to do this, but I assume it was somehow meant to draw attention to a problem the school or government was covering up. You know how these college-aged activists are, always thinking they are so clever and profound. But in this case they got me to thinking about life without mirrors.
Now I’m not one of those metrosexual guys who spends half of my life primping and preening in front of a mirror. My bathroom isn’t stocked with hundreds of different kinds of moisturizers, hair products and body sprays. But I still wouldn’t want to start my day without a quick peek into the mirror. I still like to make sure that my weird and wiry hair isn’t doing anything too obnoxious and that the afflictions of age (primarily those thick black hairs that seem to grow suddenly out of strange places) are not protruding from places they shouldn’t be.
There is something comforting about peering into a mirror every now and then. Certainly there is usually no reason to gaze at myself when I go into a bathroom but, like you, I always make a cursory check to ensure that nothing too weird is going on. If I eat a poppy seed bagel (my favorite!) I have to check that there isn’t a seed stuck between those two teeth that are just a tiny bit crooked and always (always!) manage to trap a seed. Few things are worse than trooping around all day and only realizing at the end of it that I’ve had a piece of parsley or spinach stuck to one of my teeth or that I’ve had a ridiculous cowlick. You know the feeling.
My personal Bible study this morning took me to the closing verses of the first chapter of James. You no doubt know these words well:
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.
As I read these verses and began to meditate upon them I was reminded immediately of those activists on the college campus. I realized that I would never intentionally head out to a meeting or an appointment without first checking a mirror to make sure that everything looked just about right (or as right as it can, anyways, based on what I’m working with here). Covering all the mirrors in our house would bother me! And then I was struck by the way James portrays the Bible as a mirror for the heart. I thought of how loathe I am to begin my day without peering into a mirror but how little it troubles me when I begin the day without peering into the mirror of the Word.
I know there have been times when I’ve forgotten to check a mirror before heading out. Most of the time it hasn’t mattered, but there have been a couple of occasions when I realized only when it was too late that I had forgotten to shave or that I was still showing clear evidence on my face of having eaten a chocolate cookie earlier in the day. I could have saved myself embarrassment by just checking the mirror. I know there have been times when I’ve forgotten or neglected to look into the mirror of the Word, the perfect law of liberty, to assess my heart. Most of the time it hasn’t shown, but I know there have been occasions when I gave clear evidence of this to the people I encountered. There have been other times that I’ve read the Bible, but have not allowed it to penetrate or to take hold. I’ve been just the person James warns about who “looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.” I have looked quickly, glanced briefly, but have not looked long enough to allow the Scripture to reflect back to me my sin and God’s standard of holiness. I have gone merrily on my way having already forgotten to be both a hearer and a doer.
God’s Word has the unique ability to give great clarity to what God demands and expects of us. It also unmasks our sin and our rebellion. I would be a fool not to gaze into this mirror every day. I would be a fool to go about life without regularly looking into this amazing mirror.
Comments (10) »
1. Brian @ voiceofthesheep
March 28, 2007
10:29 AM
Hi Tim,
Not only is the Bible a mirror of the heart, but it also provides a reflection of what we will one day see and know directly:
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. - 1 Cor. 13:11-12
2. Barry
March 28, 2007
10:59 AM
Howdy Tim, Very nice post. I appreciate the insight you have and the willingness to write about it.
This mirror analogy reminds me so much of a similar analogy used in scripture. The analogy of looking at scripture or God’s word as food or bread. (Luke 4:4, John 6) This was brought to my attention during a recent bible study. One of the members of our study commented that we do not normally think of God’s word as real food. We use food to sustain our lives. As believers, why do we not treat the word of God the same way? It should sustain us even more than the food we eat.
3. Armen
March 28, 2007
12:12 PM
Tim -
A word of warning regarding your love for poppy seed bagels. Don’t eat one before going for any medical examinations (such as job interview medicals). You will test positive for opium and you’ll not get the job! ;)
4. James
March 28, 2007
1:29 PM
Thank you for urging us to look in the mirror. I believe that the text is also emphasizing doing something about what you see. Could you imagine looking in the mirror, seeing that poppy seed, some ear hairs, some nose hairs, and that your hair is an absolute mess, and then thinking, “Oh, ok. Then, without correcting any of it, you run right out to live blog a conference with a thousand of your closest friends.”
But how many of us, who do take the time to look in the mirror of the word every day, don’t make any of the necessary adjustments that we see in it?
Thanks for the post, Tim. Let’s all pray God for the discipline to pick out those poppy seeds.
This comment develops ideas found here
5. Royce Douglas
March 28, 2007
2:43 PM
Great thoughts, Tim!
I might offer another $.02:
I sometimes wonder if James is using phrases more specifically than we sometimes think…
For example, in NT usage, the phrase ‘the Word’ more often refers specifically to the Gospel than to the written scriptures as a whole. (Although the enlightened believer will read the Gospel’s truth on every page!)
And, to persevere at gazing upon the ‘Completed Law, the Law of Liberty’ is likewise to persevere at gazing upon the Finished Work of Christ!
Then, the action(s) that ought to follow this hearing of the Gospel is that found in verse 21… • eschew all moral filth and prevalent evil and humbly accept the Implanted Word! And again in 2:12… • reflecting THIS kind of mercy, speak and act like those who are to be judged by THIS ‘Law’ that gives Freedom!
(take it fwiw…)
Royce Douglas
6. Josh Rives
March 28, 2007
2:51 PM
I feel we would all suffer if no one looked in the mirror. I would be even more repulsive looking than I am now.
7. Joel
March 28, 2007
4:51 PM
Luke 8 contains the parable of the seed, the word of God. There are many distractions for the seed, so that “SEEING THEY MAY NOT SEE, AND HEARING THEY MAY NOT UNDERSTAND”.
Luke 8:19-21
And His mother and brothers came to Him, and they were unable to get to Him because of the crowd. And it was reported to Him, “Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, wishing to see You.” But He answered and said to them, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.”
James, the brother of Jesus restated this:
James 1:22-24
But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.
May your mirror not be cracked, fogged, or distorted by the cares of the world.
8. Wyeth Duncan
March 28, 2007
5:37 PM
I can’t add to any of this, so I will just say, “Amen!”
Wyeth Duncan
9. Peter Schott
March 29, 2007
6:51 PM
I think it’s an interesting concept. Our youth went through this last year as part of their discipleship weekend - no mirrors anywhere. The closest they came was probably glass that reflected something, but all mirrors in all of the homes, churches, etc were covered up. Similar topic for them as well.
-Pete
10. Hope
March 29, 2007
8:32 PM
I wonder how James’ admonition would come across in a time when mirrors were made of polished metal (bronze, copper, silver), small, and not ubiquitous….
It’s hard for me to imagine that as a time when people were accustomed to taking a quick glance in a mirror, just to “check.” And indeed, James says they were looking “intently” - and still forget what they looked like once the mirror was put away. I don’t think the passage is about not looking long enough at the Word to make changes… but looking plently long and still making no changes.
Hope