Looking in the Mirror

So I was watching the movie "Reign Over Me" tonight for the first time. If you haven't seen it, I definitely recommend it. It's a movie about a guy who reaches out to a friend of his who is going through a lot of pain. His friend lost his entire family in the 9/11 attacks and let's just say he isn't handling it well. There was one scene in the movie that totally stood out to me.
So both guys are having dinner at a restaurant and the guy who's reaching out to his friend starts talking about some struggles that he's going through with his family. Then he asks his friend who has lost everything, "Are you going to be alright?" And his friend responds by saying, "I'm more worried about you."
That scene struck me so much because I see a lot of myself in that interchange. For my entire life, I've been the kind of person that is always trying to reach out to help people. And because of that, many people who have gone through difficult times have been drawn to me and I've always been more than willing to do what I can to help them out, talk to them, listen, etc. Looking back on those times, I have found that I reach out to people for two reasons: 1.) To help the person and 2.) to avoid working on my own issues. Because after all, if I'm so caught up in what another person is going through, I feel like I don't have to turn my eyes on myself and what I may need to work on. I'm not saying that I haven't really helped anyone, I'm just saying that a lot of times, I have done it for the wrong reasons.
So often, it's easier for us to look at another person in their eyes than it is to look at ourselves in the mirror. Mainly because we're afraid of what we'll see. If we honestly looked at ourselves in the mirror, we might realize that we aren't as good or as strong as we thought or hoped we were. A mirror reveals imperfections. It reveals mistakes. It reveals regrets. And if we catch a glimpse of what is really there, we turn away as fast as we can in hopes that we'll forget what we just saw. But unfortunately, we know exactly what we saw and looking away won't make us forget who we are.
The good news, and this is something that I've been learning a lot about lately, is that the image we see today in the mirror doesn't have to be the image we see tomorrow, or the next day, or the next year. Seeing our own imperfections is a painful experience but it also gives us an amazing opportunity: the opportunity to change. To renew. To transform into the person we want to be. But the choice is always ours to make. No one else can make it for us. And the first step, as always, is to take a good look in the mirror.

Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind

Romans 12:12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer

Hope you enjoyed this entry. Thanks for reading it!

Matt