I have food on my face all the time...at least it seems like it. My husband and children are always pointing at the corners of my mouth and grinning that "you've done it again," grin. I have just about decided that I need to keep a mirror with me at all times and glance at it every time I eat, just to check and make sure no straggling crumbs have found their way to the outside corners of my mouth. Pretty good, idea, huh?
Well, what if one day I decided to do that very thing. I went out and purchased a little, inconspicuous, hand-held mirror and the next time we sat down to a meal, I put it in my lap. All throughout the course of the meal, I glanced downward, not seeing much of anything. However, during the last few moments at the table, I looked down and noticed there was some pizza sauce that had somehow made its way to my nose and was slowly dripping down my cheek.
Now, wouldn't it be ridiculous for me to see the mess and then totally ignore it? Wouldn't it seem rather odd to you that I chose to NOT use the mirror for its intended purpose...to leave my napkin sitting idly by my plate? Wouldn't you think there was something wrong with me for acting as if the sauce really wasn't there? I can guarantee that if I did, it wouldn't be too long before the snickers and the pointing would commence.
Yet, I do that all the time...in a spiritual sense.
James 1:22-25 says, "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 observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the Perfect Law of Liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does."
In this passage, James is telling us that the Word - the Perfect Law of Liberty - is our Mirror. We are to look in It and examine ourselves to see what we need to do and don't need to do...to see how much sauce we REALLY do have on our faces, so we can take our napkin and clean it off, instead of walking around like that the rest of the day with people pointing and snickering!
"What does this not-so-godly sauce look like," you might ask. Well, it looks like that little white-lie told yesterday to make someone feel better. It looks like that harbored anger against someone who has "done us wrong." It looks like the jealously exhibited towards a co-worker who got the promotion we wanted. It looks like utilizing too much time on the computer, so the family suffers. It looks like all of those things that hinder our walk with Christ - and so much more.
Sometimes, I even wonder if when we look in to the Mirror of God's Word, we see a whole pizza on our faces, instead of just the sauce.
I don't want to go around with food on my face. There's something wrong with that. But there's also something wrong with looking into the Word and seeing something out of place in my life...something that ought not be...and then getting up out of my chair and pretending that I never saw my sin at all.
Let's not do that today. Let's carve out time in our day to spend in the Word, so that God can show us the proverbial "sauce" on our faces. Let's allow Him to remove it, instead of pretending that it don't exist. Let's be doers of the Word and not just hearers, only.
Deal? Deal.
Thanks God for giving me Your Word and the conviction of Your Spirit, so that I can be holy before You. My I use it as the Mirror it was intended to be, and may I then respond accordingly to what It shows me. Thank Your for Your patience and for Your gentle rebukes. I love You. I really do.
