House of Mirrors Part II

 

Hmmm, sounds like a scary movie sequel doesn’t it?  Sometimes life can seem that way when we ride the metro or walk the streets of Paris, cause you never know what would, could, or might happen.  But really that’s anywhere in the world.  However we know what’s happening on a daily basis in some places and we know whether or not it would be healthy for us to take a train or bus there.  Like in war-torn Somalia or Afghanistan, just to name a few.  But here of late things have been heating up in the more docile places.  Like on the metro the other day for instance.  Oh the people seemed to be packing themselves as tightly as they could on the line 5, like they were trying to pack-a-Pacer (that’s an ultra small American car from the late ‘70s), or even a sardine can.  My feet were hurting and all I could think about was Rosa Parks – "when I finally sit down I’m not getting up to move to the front, back or even off the train."  Just one long ride until my feet decided it’s time to get up.

Anyhoo, I finally got in one of these sardine cans after letting a couple of packed ones pass by, for it was taking me longer than usual to get home.  And wouldn’t you know it, I had to stand up, so I tried to position myself in a place so when a person got up I could easily sit in the seat they vacated.  All seemed to be working according to plan when we reached a stop and not one, not two but three ladies got up from the same area to get off.  Yes!!  So I stood closely to the person behind me so they could pass in front of me and get off the train to my right.  The first lady knew how to follow instructions without any prompting.  However it was the second older lady who stopped right in front of me and said “pardon moi”.  I said in English “go ahead” and I took my left hand and helped her go in the same direction as her companion, which was the path of least resistance from me and those around me.  This didn’t make her happy at all for I voluntarily helped her get off the train without her asking.  She huffed and puffed and growled at me, and would have blown my house down if it had been made of straw or hay, and said “oooh lala” in that old-fashioned French way.  But since my house is made of brick :-), I huffed and puffed and growled back at her and said “stupid French”.  Voila!  Then I sat down and my feet began singing “Amen” and the “Hallelujah Chorus” as a medley.  I felt pretty darn good cause I showed her who was boss.  Yet who did she see?  If she could have understood my language, or if she knew my love relationship with Jesus, did she see Him in me?  Could she?  Would Jesus have helped her off the train the way I did?  I hope so.  LOL!!  He probably wouldn’t have said what I said in response to her “ooh lala”, mais peut etre He would have stood His ground too, for it was not unreasonable for her to follow her companion who saw the pathway very clearly. 

I could tell it was a battle of wills – cultural, racial, status for maybe she thought I was someone else from another country and that I was supposed to bow to her and not she to me.  But I didn’t see her bowing to me at all.  I had my eye on one of those doggone seats and I was not going to let her problems cause more problems for me and my feet.  I recall Jesus telling His disciples several times “come away” because He was tired and hungry after much walking, preaching, teaching, praying for folk, healing them, feeding them, playing with their kids, spitting in their eyes, whipping them out of the temple, answering their questions with a question, maintaining His stance for He knew Who He was and is, and for me He is the boss.  So why is this blog entitled House of Mirrors part II?  The main question that came up in our conversation last summer was “What does God see when He looks at me/us?”  Does He see Himself – the nature and characteristics of His only Begotten Son Jesus the Christ, who we say lives in our hearts?  Who does He see?  A distorted image of Himself, or a clear image of . . . me?  Oooh, that one hurt.

I’ve never seen it done up close, but I hope one day I will get to witness gold being refined in the fire.  I’m told that the goldsmith heats the gold at ever increasing temperatures and at intervals, and before increasing the temperature, he/she will skim off the impurities that rise to the top, and then look into the gold.  For what are they looking?  They’re looking for their face – their image in the gold.  This is how they know the gold is ready and all the impurities are gone.  Increasing temperatures and continuing to skim off the dross.  This is the spiritual process the Father lovingly subjects us to through our life experiences.  Ever-increasing difficult and challenging situations to reveal what’s inside of us that’s not like Him, so we can agree with Him and cooperate with Him for the purifying of our motives, our thoughts, our desires, our intentions, etc. those things we do within our souls that nobody else can see, yet when they push our buttons the entire world gets to see, hear and know what we’re really all about down below.  :-)  “And you call yourself a Christian” they ask and say, thinking that because we’re Christians we don’t bleed when we get cut, we don’t cry when we lose a loved one, we don’t hurt when we experience divorce and financial crises, etc. and etc.  

Being a Christian doesn’t deny our humanity, pas du tout.  Being a Christian means we’ve first invited Jesus to live, dwell, inhabit our hearts and lives and thus take us through the difficult transformation processes i.e. the ever-increasing temperatures, into becoming like Him.  It means we’ve decided to turn over the reins, the pilot’s controls, the steering wheel, (you see what I’m saying?)  to Him and are trying more and more to trust Him to lead us on a daily basis.  This is not the lazy way of living by no means.  It takes skill i.e. trust, to obey the Holy Spirit inside.  It takes nothing to do things your own way, say the first thing that comes to your mind, strike out automatically whether or not you have the right to do so.  It’s easy to live in the flesh and think your own thoughts.  It takes power to think the thoughts of the Almighty and to allow His kingdom culture to supersede our earthly culture and beliefs, for we feel we have the right and responsibility to share our mind, no matter what’s there – pie or poop.  Sorry, but you see what I’m saying so you won’t step in it.  LOL!!  Where’s a pooper scooper when they need it?

When Jesus moves into our temple – our homes, our hearts, our lives He already knows what He’s getting Himself into.  That’s what excites Him.  He’s not afraid or discouraged by our imperfections and issues.  As a matter of fact, it’s because of these very things which cause the death of our souls, for which HE died!  He knows when He walks into the “door”, each room has a mirror which reflects a certain area of ourselves.  Some of our mirrors we keep hidden behind a cloth way up in a secret room, like Dorian Gray (I just loved that story by the way.) and before others we try to appear one way, but the mirror reflects the true us.  Hmmm, but that’s the room Jesus wants to go to first because it’s the distorted images we have of ourselves that’s causing us, our families, and other relationships so many problems.  He wants to help us replace these mirrors with true reflections of who we are, then we can become who we are meant to be by gazing at the image of Who He is. 

Some people think if Jesus comes to live in all our hearts and we all become like Him we will become clones.  But this is not true.  Jesus comes in not to take away our unique identities, but to release them, for without Him, we’re just copying somebody else, and do I need to mention “his” name?   See Jesus told the Pharisees that if they knew Him they would know the Father in heaven, and of course they had to argue their point.  Finally He told them they were of their father the devil.  There are only two fathers:  Father God in heaven, and the godfather (not James Brown either).  You see, the satan has been trying to take God’s place since . . . before the Garden of Eden, when we came on the scene.  That’s why he was kicked out of heaven.  His wonderful position of first place cherubim, or whatever he was, wasn’t enough for him.  He wanted to be the HNIC (ask a Black American what that means.  LOL), and God wasn’t having it.  Aren’t you glad?  I am.  Ahem.  So who’s YOUR daddy?  Maybe that should be the title of this blog.  You see, all the children of the satan look alike:  destructive.  Need I say more?  But, back to the mirrors.

In the Garden of Eden man was made in the image of God.  That image inside of humans was lost, distorted when sin entered our world through disobedience.  God’s desire from then on was to be reconnected with His lovers – that would be us.  When He sees me, He desires to see Himself for He is perfection, He is holy, He is goodness, He is pure love, and it’s that pure love – not the kissy kissy stuff we see and get aroused over – that has the power to change our world one heart, and one life at a time.  Years ago Margaret Becker sang what has become one of my favorite songs:  “When He sees me, He sees His righteousness, He sees His holiness filling up the emptiness.  When He looks at me Yeah, He sees the blood He shed.  I’m glad He sees Himself each time He looks at me.”  Wow!!!  When I really give my life: my wants and desires, my needs and myself, my heart and affections to Jesus and not just invite Him to come and live with all my junk, I’m giving Him permission to clean out not only my garage, but my attic, my cellar, the basement beneath the cellar, and to investigate every room of my heart, my soul, my existence, my past, my ancestors – anything that has something to do with making me who I am now.  I want Him to have at it.  I want Him to break my distorted mirrors (no seven years of bad luck here Snow White and Sleeping Beauty) and give me new ones.  No more distortion, looking skinny when I’m really fat on unforgiveness, looking airbrushed when I’m really covered with pimples of jealousy and blackheads of depression.  No more lies, illusions and allusions, deceptions and flattery.  Only the truth will MAKE us free.  I don’t want to just be set free from the pen and chains of slavery, I want to be made free on the inside of slavery to yes, the ugly word no one wants to face in this day and age – sin.  For you shall know the truth and the truth shall MAKE you free.  For whom the Son sets free is free indeed.  Mirror Mirror on the wall, Mirror mirror down the hall, No more lies about my fall, Christ is now my Lord and all in all.  Break those mirrors!!!