"Little help!...Little help over here!"
Hang with me. The news will get better. But today...
...I just took another phone call from a buddy, reporting another suicide. I say 'another' because that's three in three weeks, each a close friend or relative of a close friend of mine. If you would, maybe say a prayer for people knocked down by a tragedy like this.
I got a note last week from one of the closest friends of a mutual friend whose son had killed himself; the short note from this quiet and entirely humble man ended like this:
"I just hope that during this tragedy I was able to reflect God's glory."
And this gentleman had. He had been devoted to and at the service of this family through the whole ordeal. But he'd been the same way before this happened and I'm sure he'll be the same way in the days and months ahead.
Because he's dug in.
"Let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." I can't remember where I wrote this down from a few weeks ago, but here it is: "When we radiate God's light in the world — his moral and spiritual attributes (i.e. when we allow God to live his life in us and through us) — he manifests his glory through us, and he is glorified through us."
I know we're supposed to be like little mirrors that reflect the nature of God, his character and kindness and goodness. And without him really changing our hearts, all we do is artificial. Without transformation, we're imitators.
"And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." 2 Corinthians 3:18
I'm a spiritual invalid. This is more clear to me each day. God is good, and one of the best things he does is show you just how lacking you are. If we want to be transformed, all he asks is that we bring nothing. And as I heard a guy say once, while all he requires is nothing, some of us haven't got that. But God can't do a lot until you come to him with zip, topped out, at the bottom. He's not one to top off the tanks.
My prayer is that we can better reflect the Savior, since it's not about us. Everything, every single thing, is to revolve around the Son. In tragedy or harvest, God help us remember that, help us renew our minds, and may you transform our hearts, and make us mirrors that reflect you and not the world, a fallen place that none of us are equipped to handle.
I can't remember where I got this from either, but I wrote it down: "Learn what it means to be set apart. Others should notice a difference in our character and conduct when comparing us to the rest of the world. What they ought to see are biblical principles at work. But we can look like kingdom dwellers only when we are training our minds to think like the King."
