THE MIRROR on monday

It is “a fixing of the thoughts on something, careful consideration” but it can also be “an image, representation, counterpart” according to dictionary.com. The question is, how do you leave reflection? The first definition is readily what this past weekend has wrought, a stopping to reflect on the life of perhaps the most disputed person in history. I’m coming out of an intensive time of focusing on deficient areas in my own life such as the willingness to sacrifice for others, bonafide resolve, utter exasperation and the like. And maybe that’s the problem. I’m always game for the Easter thrill ride. This year I even participated in the season of Lent along with my wife for the first time. But why the hurry to leave the theme park, so-to-speak?

I’m in a hurry because the first reflection leads to the second. Looking at Jesus means to ultimately look at an image that bears some resemblance to me. If Jesus exhibits extremes of love, passion, grace, mercy, etc. then I reflect parts of him and am humbled by my incomplete counterpart image of Him. See, I leave a weekend like this one having uploaded cool visual renderings of Jesus to my Facebook page and meaningfully indulged the threaded discussions about the season but what of Monday? What of the careful consideration of my daily temptations, frustrations, inclinations and blindspots that can lead me to a looking glass that hardly finds Jesus as the mirror image? That’s frightening. To think that one takes 4o days and a weekend to divest superficiality only to welcome it back the day after celebrating Jesus’ resurrection.

It’s quite religious I guess to even park here. More than that it’s a turnoff subject to be sure, especially if Jesus isn’t your cup of tea. But dig this. Reflection as an act or an image is perhaps the gust we need if we are going to leave the doldrums. There is a stagnancy that persists when reflection ceases. One might say that mirrors have little value since no one ever forgot what they looked like. Right, and whoever said that would be using cute language. People don’t so much forget what they look like as much as they forget WHO they should resemble. Most of us spend time in the mirror inventing ways to repackage the old. I bet if I’m courageous enough I can find a better use of reflection. Until next year…

“reflection.” Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 05 Apr. 2010. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/reflection>.