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Mirrors and Windows, Sins and Needs, and Christians Reflecting Poorly On Jesus

I tend to believe that most people who reject Jesus, don’t reject Jesus.

They reject the strangely distorted version of him they experience through the lives of too many Christians. They bump-up against us in their cubicles, carpool lanes, and classrooms, and see a faith that doesn’t look all that appealing, and a God who doesn’t seem to have much affect on us outside of our Sunday morning singalongs.

I think of great deal of it has to do with our mirrors and our windows.

If look out a window, I see the world outside of where I’m standing; to whatever happens to pass through the frame, to beyond me.

If I look into my mirror though, well all I’m ever able to see is myself.

We Christians like to talk about “sin”, a lot.

It’s an insider church word that’s managed to do all kinds of horrific, irrevocable damage outside of our buildings. (The original word essentially means to “miss the mark”, but it’s a big deal to God, and so we rightly make a big deal of it too).

The problem is, whenever followers of Jesus look at sin, it’s almost always through a window; to the mess, flaws, and failures of other people.

We forever fixate on the bad stuff people outside our windows are doing, the reasons they are falling short, the nastiness we see in them that disqualifies them from God’s thumbs-up and from membership in the Kingdom Club.

The last thing most of us ever seem to do though, is to look for sin in the mirror.

The mirror? Well, that’s where we look for need.

We spend endless hours of our lives, considering about how we have been disrespected, how our situation is less than perfect, how we feel hurt, misunderstood, or mistreated. Our daily energies are so easily rallied around the cause of “self”.

We are rarely, if ever, seek to see need, outside of our own reflection.

And so, because we see sin always through a window, and need always in the mirror, we end up living lives that are both judgmental and self-centered. We become crusaders against the crowd, and passionate advocates for ourselves.

(Decidedly, not Jesus-like).

Yet something amazing might happen if we who follow Jesus, turned all of this upside-down.

What if we who claim Christ, reversed the way we chose to view the world?

What if we decided to see sin in the mirror, and need out the window?
What if we woke-up every day, with the agenda to heal outside, and fix inside, instead of the other way around?
What if our prayers were to be internally renovated, and externally motivated?

We might actually become more compassionate and more humble; others-centered in our desire to bring justice, and self-centered in our desire to eradicate sin.

Then, the world outside our campuses and cathedrals might see Christians who more accurately reflect the heart of the Jesus they claim to follow.

We who follow, might get to better experience the kind of life he meant for us to live in the process.

Christian, watch your daily windows and mirrors, and the things you look for in both. Consider how you view sin and need.
Churches, may your windows and mirrors be used well, as you preach, and gather, and move together.

May we strive to see and reflect Jesus with a clarity that changes everything, and everyone.

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