Accurate Reflections

Mirrors are interesting things. We often trust the image they reflect because it’s really their one job in life. But they’re not always accurate.

Take for example, buildings made of mirrors. They reflect the environment around them, but it isn’t totally accurate. The images they produce can be wavy, distorted, or reflect something that is only there for a moment, such as a passing car or a flying bird.

Reflections from the surface of water are much the same. Anything that breaks the surface tension is going to distort the image that’s being reflected, and even make it so you can’t tell what the image is supposed to be.

I used to have a cheap WalMart mirror in my bedroom closet that I had no idea was unintentionally a ‘skinny’ mirror. I just thought it was a regular old mirror. Needless to say, I was quite surprised the next time I saw a photo of myself in an outfit that mirror said looked good on me, and found reality to be quite different. That mirror is now down in our workout area. (Hmmm…)

Now I have a mirror in my bedroom closet that makes everyone look shorter and wider than they are. (And no, it isn’t just me- Sia said the same thing thankyouverymuch.) I guess I prefer that to looking falsely thin, but it still isn’t accurate.

Stores install actual skinny mirrors in their dressing rooms so you will buy the clothes you’re trying on. It can boost their clothing sales 18%! So if you’ve ever wondered why you love something in-store and dislike it once getting it home…now you know.

Funhouse mirrors are also not accurate. They can distort us by making us look way taller than we are, or way shorter, or fatter, or just give us a suuuuper long neck. It’s funny in the moment for sure, but certainly not accurate.

A picture can be more accurate than any mirror, especially if it’s one I am not posing for. But even then certain things can affect how I look in a photo. Catch me at the right angle, in the right lighting, and you may think I’m Andie McDowell. Catch from the wrong angle with the wrong lighting and you may think I’m Newman from Seinfeld.

If I want to know the truth, I’m going to have to ask someone I trust. Someone who will not just tell me that I am pretty, or that I look good in those jeans or that top. I need someone who’s going to say “That color is great, but I don’t think you’ll like how that looks from the back.” or “No. Take that off right now and burn it.”

The same is true for my spiritual life. I cannot look into a mirror that is inaccurate and walk away thinking that must be what I look like.

For example, if I am around people who always tell me I am good and kind, or I constantly compare myself to people who have done horrible things (fill in the blank with the dictator of your choice), I will have a flawed view of myself and the mirror I look into will make me seem beautiful because that’s what I expect to see.

The opposite is also true. If I am surrounded by people who constantly tell me that I am wrong, or bad, or need to do xy&z to please God (whether it’s actually in Scripture or not) then I am going to walk away from that mirror feeling I am worse off than I thought. And I may just give up.

But neither is an accurate reflection of who I truly am. I can’t depend on what I see in a mirror set up by other people, or a mirror that I control the angle of to make myself look a certain way.

I need to look into the Scriptures if I really want to see where I am spiritually. The Bible will never skew one way or the other. It always tells the truth. Along with the nudges of the Holy Spirit, you can’t get a more accurate read on your spiritual life.

I also need trusted friends I can come to who will tell me the truth when I ask if what I’m seeing in myself is accurate. People who love me, but also love the Word of God and what is true, and aren’t afraid to say it. (I’m looking at you, Sonja and Joni.)

Friends, surround yourselves with people who will be honest with you, even if it’s to tell you that yes, those jeans do in fact make your butt look big, so take them off right now.

Don’t let false perceptions guide your view of yourself. It isn’t healthy. It isn’t helpful. It isn’t true. Get in the Word!

James 1:22-25
(22) But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
(23) For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
(24) For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
(25) But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

2 Corinthians 13:5-8
(5) Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
(6) But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates.
(7) Now I pray to God that ye do no evil; not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates.
[8] For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.

Psalm 119:59-60
(59) I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.
(60) I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments.