I wasn't thinking about what I looked like in the mirror several months ago when I was approached by a woman at a flea market. My husband had just performed a wedding in Osoyoos, BC, and we were on our way home. We stopped at an old Elks Lodge that had a banner across the front lawn; "Flea Market and Yardsale" today. Well, that was all I needed to know... it was "today!"
As I browsed around and looked at "junk" that appeared to have been looked at for years, a slender- looking woman with long black hair approached me. She had the appearance of a gypsy or a flower child of the seventies.
"You have gorgeous hair," she said. I looked around the room, but knew she was talking to me because my husband and I were the only "browsers" in there. "I noticed you from across the room," she said. "You have a light above your head like a halo; you're an angel... I know, because I'm an angel. You have been sent here by God to make the world a better place." She told me that I had a kind face and encouraged me to keep myself strong and healthy. As she talked to me, I prayed for God's wisdom, for an opportunity to direct her attention and focus on Jesus. Patiently, I listened but also interjected words of truth, each time hoping that she would see the God I knew in me.
Occasionally the unusual crosses our paths. Something unexpected, not of the ordinary... Though, I did not agree with this lady that I was an angel, I could not deny the fact that she had sparked an interest in me; how I live, what I say, how I treat people.
Pastor Chris challenged us to look in the mirror last week and ask ourselves these questions:
1. Are you living a holy life?
2. Are you settling?
3. Can you say, "imitate me"?
4. Are you walking according to scripture?
5. Are you saturating your mind with garbage?
He also challenged us to "press forward;" to go "hard after God."
My prayer is that we would be devoted to God and pursue Him with our whole being.
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
James 4: 7-8, 10
Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore, I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
1 Corinthians 9:25-27
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