Thursday, February 28, 2013

Reflection...a way of life

2 Corinthians 3:18
18 So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.

Glory...a church word.  What does it mean?  You can get a good understanding from looking at the two words that are translated "glory" in the OT and NT... Hebrew is kabod which means "heaviness" or "weightiness" and then the Greek word is doxa which means a light that shines from something brilliant.  Basically, the glory of God is the evidence that He is at work in the world.  James MacDonald, a Christian pastor/writer, said in his work Vertical Church, that as "wet is to water, so glory is to God" or as "heat is to fire, so glory is to God." or as "light is to bulb, so glory is to God."

So what does that look like?  The promise in 2 Corinthians is clear...when Christ reveals Himself to us and we accept the reality of Him as Savior and Lord, we can stop "trying" to recreate ourselves.  We reflect what God is doing in the World, in/outside/around ourselves and as we do that, God does the work to perfect and remake us more and more into evidence that He's at work on the earth ("glory"- the evidence that God has been at work).


What does that mean for us?
It means that my job is to reflect what God is doing like a mirror...the language is literally that of a reflective surface reflecting God's doxa or light that comes from something brilliant.  Here's some implications for us that we can learn from the mirror analogy.
A mirror only reflects what it focuses on.  If I focus on my fears, I reflect them.  If I focus on my inadequacies, I reflect them.  If I focus on problems, I reflect them and to be a God glorifying person, I can't do that.  I must focus on the work all around me that God is doing...there is no shortage of evidence.  Ever seen that person who is always hopeful, no matter how bad things are.  They aren't ignoring the bad, they are trusting in God's work behind the scenes because they've already seen it too many times to know that it's there.
If the mirror is dirty, then it doesn't reflect so well.  For Christians, dirt happens when we stop following God's plan and choose to follow our own desires instead or when we sin.  Isaiah 59:2 tells us that sin hinders the connection with God.  That's a double duty metaphor because then we are dirty, but we also are not pointed toward Christ and therefore aren't able to reflect God's glory, we are reflecting something else.  That's why God gives us access to "cleaner" so to speak 24/7, because He knows we'll get dirty...inevitable...so 1 John 1:9 tells us that if we confess our sins to Him, He's faithful and just to forgive our sins and CLEANSE us from all unrighteousness.
Here's our normal plan for when we aren't up to snuff, we think we need to hide and bargain with God...like He doesn't know or He didn't plan for that...like we are putting Him out.  We try to "make up" for stuff by going to church more or being "better" or sacrificing something to punish ourselves...whatever.  We are all about trying to make the mirror "look" better, thinking that this squares things with God.  Really all that does is clutter up the mirror with things that make it harder to reflect God's work, because if you are going to reflect God's work, you can't look perfect, because God's work and the evidence of that requires being honest about your imperfections...not ignoring them or you doing some Herculean task to correct them yourself.  As you reflect God, He reshapes you and you become the "evidence that God has been at work" in your own life.  Because here's the thing...

The mirror can't add anything to what it reflects, because it's not about the mirror, it's about the reflection.
Picasso doesn't want me to honor him by giving my best at a painting and then run around and tell everyone that Picasso did that...he'd roll over in his grave screaming "no, no,no".  I can't add to God's glory by dressing myself up OR by just doing what I do and if it turns out well, just passing credit to God.
We see athletes all the time that hit a home run and point to the sky or someone receive an award and say "to God be the glory"...like giving God glory means I do something cool and generously hand God the credit for that and isn't He lucky to have me.  That's ridiculous...Isaiah tells us that anything good that we could do...ANYTHING...is as filthy rags next to God's work...so the evidence of our work isn't in the same league as the evidence of God's work.  We can't add to what God does...we can only point to it or reflect it...and that's all we have to do.
If we think it's about the mirror and we begin to compare mirrors among us and those with more attractive, cooler or more talented mirrors may think or be thought of as better, when that's a fail, because there is one standard...Jesus...and one job...reflection.
The athletes that really get it aren't the ones that in one instance they thank God, but the ones that reflect Christ at all times, not just on the big stage, because that verb literally means that at each moment this action is happening and true and there is no end in sight.
What we see is the truth of 1 Peter 5:6 that if you "humble yourself under the Mighty Hand of God" -- you submit to His ways, His direction, reflecting His character and direction in what you do -- that "He will raise you up in due time".  Just like if I covered a small object with my hand completely, if you tried to see it, you would only see my hand....when we humble ourselves under the Mighty Hand of God, when people look at us, they only see God's hand at work in us, around us or through us...and God keeps reshaping us.  Then, as that happens, I'm not trying to pretty up my mirror, God does that in a way that is permanent and lasting, not my quick fix or duct tape engineering...in fact, the mirror doesn't get fixed, it gets remade and the improvements are things I stuck in my schedule or a new habit learned, but I'm literally different in a way that I couldn't have made myself if I tried.

And that's the beauty of understanding this part of following Jesus...it's not on me, it's on Him and He does the work.  It's hard at times, but it's not my performance that God wants, but my reflective surface...and He does the rest.