Looking In The Mirror

I have a confession to make – I’m a mess!

I was reminded of this yesterday morning after Mary set me in my wheelchair.

As I mentioned before, my neck muscles are too weak to hold my head up. When getting me set up on the computer, Mary places a pillow behind my head and reclines the wheelchair so I can comfortably look at the screen without my head falling. ALS is such a hassle!

If I wanted to see myself in a mirror, I’d have to ask her to park me in front of the mirror. I don’t do that. Not only because I cannot speak to ask her this, but also because I have no interest in doing so. I don’t need another reminder of what twenty-three years with ALS and fifty-nine years living in this harsh environment we call earth has done to my face.

After Mary sets me in the wheelchair, she turns on my computer then attaches it to the wheelchair. The support bars that secure the computer to the wheelchair hold the screen about eighteen inches from my face. Yesterday morning, however, she attached the computer but forgot to turn it on. In the early morning light coming in from the open blinds, the blank computer screen was like a mirror fixed directly in front of my face.

“I’m a mess,” I thought, as I stared at the man reflected on the black screen. It’s funny, though, one of the first things I noticed is that Mary had my hair brushed perfectly. I laughed about this because we were not expecting company and I normally don’t see myself. She could leave me with Albert Einstein’s hair, and I wouldn’t even know. Mary does the right thing even when nobody notices.

“Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.” – C.S. Lewis

As I continued to look at the weathered face in the reflection, I thought about how depressing my life would be if I focused on my appearance. Even more so if my joy and satisfaction depended on the trappings of this world like wealth, nice cars and material things, and good food. Although, now that I think about it, a tender steak sounds really good right now.

“We do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”                  (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

Friends, I know all too well that trials are difficult. If you are going through a difficult time, allow God to shift your focus from the visible and temporary things to the invisible and eternal things. God’s word is the mirror of our soul. Spend time in this mirror every day. It will change your life for the better.

After five minutes of contemplating my existence, Mary realized that she forgot to turn the computer on and hit the power button and dashed off to do laundry or something. Another face, a face painted by an eight-year-old girl being raised by atheist parents, soon appeared on my screen:

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 3:18).