The Mirror Test

Being absolutely honest with self would seem to be an easy thing, but the truth is we have installed so many defensive mechanisms that the blame game is played flawlessly without thinking.  I always remember the lamp in the living room which fell and broke because of some rough play in the wrong place.  Before the noise had ceased and the last broken piece had settled on the floor, I was telling my mother that it just fell off the table.  It was not my fault.  Gravity did it.  Or, maybe it was the day of the first earthquake in the land where I lived as a boy.    

It seems that we are born with this innate ability to put the blame for what is wrong everywhere but within ourselves.  I can look at the spiritual life of others and figure out in a minute the source of the problem, but looking in the mirror gives me nary a clue as to what might be wrong in my own.  Certainly, it is not so hard to figure out and see.  The Apostle Paul wrote a Word to the Galatian Christian which says, "...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."  (Galatians 5:22-23)  When I see other things surfacing in my outward life, it should not be so difficult to realize that it is not about someone else, but all about me.    

The fact that I may choose to act with something other than love and the forgiveness which goes with it, or the fact that I choose to be short tempered and ill with others only points to the fact that the Holy Spirit does not really have the control in my life to which I might be bearing witness.  And while we might think it is a big secret that the Spirit does not have the control that we think He has in us, it is no secret to those around us.  Unfortunately, those who know us can often see what we do not want to see ourselves when we spend a few extra moments in the front of the mirror of spiritual disclosure.