The guy in the mirror

There is a problem I face every morning when my feet leave the bed and touch the floor. There's a mirror in my bathroom (big surprise, right?) and I tend to stand in front of it while I do the morning routine. What's the purpose of a mirror? To reflect your appearance, right? For much of my growing up years, I was equally scared of both mirrors and cameras. The adolescent insecurities in my physical self were always present and sometimes completely overwhelming. I can remember early in my teenage years being afraid to play football with the guys because they would usually go shirtless and I was disgusted with the lack of "manly" features I saw in the mirror each morning. However, as time passed, the insecurities took on a new face.

It's human nature to be your own worst critic. I haven't figured out why it is that, before this summer, I had such a hard time thinking anything good about myself. Is anyone else the same way? On the surface, I came across as an overconfident, cocky young man who thought and acted like he was bigger and better than everyone else. However, as is usually the case with arrogant people, it was all one big cover-up. Inside, I desperately wanted to be accepted, liked, respected, etc. My problem was that I was listening to the wrong voice. I've spent the first two paragraphs covering the problem...now for the solution.

We all have the quiet voices in our heads. The intuitions, the assessments, the conscience, the evaluators and the decision-maker all have their seat on the jury of our minds. All of these voices come together at times to form our identity. Not our identity to the world, but the identity we see in ourselves. It's the identity that waits for us when our eyes meet themselves in a mirror. You have heard the voices countless times in your life. They tell you who you are.

My friends, the real question is: From where do you draw your identity? Whose voice do you listen to? For most of my life to this point, the message I've received is "failure". "You're not good enough and you never will be". I have fought the dragon of self-loathing for as long as I can remember. This summer at Pine Cove, I read the Psalms and Proverbs in their entirety. I rediscovered the affection that our Creator has for us. For me, the most powerful Psalm, when attempting to fix an identity crisis, was Psalm 139. Read and be blessed, my friends...

Psalm 139

1 O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.

2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.

3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.

4 Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.

5 You hem me in—behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?

8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, ^[a] you are there.

9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,

10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"

12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!

18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you.

.....

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.

24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

(verses 19-22 talk about slaying the wicked and hatred for the unrighteous...not exactly on our topic)

So, there you have it folks. That's one of the best representations in scripture of exactly what God thinks about you. It's rather hard to think poorly of the person in the mirror given what your Creator thinks about you. However, this is only the beginning of establishing a proper identity.

We as humans are always fighting 3 enemies: satan, the world and our own sin nature. All 3 of them love to lie to us. The Bible refers to satan as the "father of lies"- John 8:44. The world is full of people who don't know Christ and are searching desperately for something to fill the hole that only He can fill. Someone who doesn't know Christ or accept the truth of His word, The Bible, should never be looked to as a source of identity. They are missing many pieces to the puzzle they've spent their life attempting to assemble. You should never look to them for validation or to help you figure out who you are. Even the face in the mirror can't be trusted whole-heartedly. We have to remember that our human nature is fallen; it's broken beyond repair. It is desperately selfish and self-serving and will do whatever it takes to feed its own desires.

If you give satan the chance to tell you who you are, you'll get an answer that isn't the truth and definitely not what you want to hear. The Bible says that satan has only come to "steal, kill and destroy" - John 10:10. I surely don't want the enemy of my soul to have any opportunity to speak lies into my heart.

The world is desperately insecure and we all know that misery loves company. I love how 1 Peter 4 puts it, "For you have spent enough time doing what godless people enjoy...they think it's strange that you no longer plunge into the flood of wild and destructive things they do." The world wants you to draw your identity from what you do, your title, your job, the amounts of toys you possess, how big your house is, how beautiful your wife is (or handsome your husband is), where you vacation, etc. The world can't be trusted because they've completely lost sight of all things eternal, all things truly significant.

The face in the mirror can't be trusted because, in the end, it only serves one master: itself. Self is a black hole of loneliness and despair that can never be satisfied. Self is the corrupt leftover of the perfect and righteous being we were created to be. Let's face it folks, if we look inside the depths of our own minds it won't take long to realize that our humanity is a truly dreadful thing. Our identity cannot come from such a tainted source.

It's time for the answer. Care to take a guess? The answer is the same no matter how the question is asked: Jesus Christ. Who better to tell us who we are and define for us a life purpose than the One who made us with His bare hands, knit us together inside our mother's womb? When we begin to understand that the only identity we need is that of a child of Almighty God, all else falls in line behind that title. We are called to be ministers of His grace, teachers of His truth, mentors to the younger and inexperienced, protectors of the precious, delicate, weak or innocent. We as men are called to be husband and father; ladies as wife and mother. We are called to be doctors, lawyers, engineers, business owners, teachers, construction workers, public servants, musicians, politicians, you name it. But before any of that, we are called to righteousness. We are called to be sons and daughters of the Almighty. We are called to play a part in the biggest adventure ever known to mankind.

There's your identity, my friends. If you ever find yourself with a lack of confidence or self-worth, look in the mirror and tell the old self to shut his pie hole. Satan has nothing but lies and destruction to share with you. The world wants nothing more than to force you to conform, so it can write you off and ignore the truth you bring to the table. Remember your identity, my friends. Remember who you really are.

We know the voice of our Shepherd (John 10:14). We know whose words can be trusted. The Lord's toolbox has grace, peace, confidence, mercy, assurance, abundant life, love, patience, temperance and many other tools sitting inside.

Ask Him today to help you recognize His voice. Ask Him to help you find your identity only in Him. Be blessed...