We're All Reflecting Something
When you look in the mirror you see a reflection of what you look like. I know, we're doing deep science here, but hang with me for a minute. What you look like communicates certain things to other people, it is a reflection of you. Your social media profiles and status updates are also reflections of you, they communicate even more about you to the outside world. Throw in your iTunes library, your DVD collection, your Netflix instant queue, your internet search history, your bank statement and your credit card bill and you begin to get a pretty good reflection of what is most important to you...and therefore a better understanding of who you are.
We're all reflecting something back to the people around us. Are we aware of what we are reflecting? Do we know what we should be reflecting?
Jonathan Edwards said, 'All creation must seek God's glory; that is the purpose for which it was made, to reflect back God's glory to himself.'
All creation. That means all the galaxies, stars, planets, moons, mountains, gorges, clouds, forests, and oceans were created for the sole purpose of reflecting God's glory back to him. Simple enough. Throw in humans though and it begins to get sticky.
The hypocrisy, saying one thing and reflecting the opposite, of Christians has got to be one of the biggest reasons people choose to believe that God does not exist. Deep down most people don't have a problem accepting that our universe is too magnificent and majestic to have just happened by a combination of time and chance. However one interaction with a hypocritical Christian is enough to send most people running in the other direction.
Whether we like it or not, Jesus left the keys to the kingdom in our hands. It is up to us to reflect the glory of God back to him, not to reflect our hatred of ________, or our repulsion with ________, or our denomination belief that _________ is ridiculous. Our purpose, not our job or occupation, our PURPOSE (the reason we were even created) is to give glory to God.
How can we do that if we're too busy reflecting ________.
We are called to something so much greater than that. We are called to give glory to the God who breathes stars and yet created us; who's sheer force and delicacy might be the biggest paradox in the universe.
The only thing worthy of glory is God, and our PURPOSE is to reflect that glory back to him. Let's be strong enough to remind each other of that on a daily basis and sensitive enough to accept it when someone else calls us out for not doing so.