A Fortune to Think About

Yesterday I was eating lunch at a small Chinese Restaurants that I enjoy going to. It is one of those old-timey places where they still wait on you at your table. After I finished my very good meal, the waitress brought be the all-important fortune cookie. Upon opening it I found this fortune, “A good friend in the best mirror.” As I sat there getting ready to pay, it struck me, this is very true. We often look into a mirror at ourselves to see what we look like on the outside and they do an excellent job at that. Well, as long as the one looking in has some idea of what might be the “appropriate appearance” looking back out. Walking around in public I often wonder about that one. But when we want to know what we look like on the inside, here is the time when a good friend is able to help with the task. This person must also be a real friend who is not afraid of hurting our feelings upon telling us their review or observations of what lies within us. Then again this is not going to be an everyday conversation that most friends have. Outside of those times when the friend might see us do or say something that needs a bit of, what we could call, “corrective commentary”, then I doubt any critic will come up. So, what are we to about this problem. There is what most Christians call an “examination of conscience” and they work well as we look into what is inside of our hearts and minds. But I often find that in everyday practice they stop short with only the bad things, the sins that I have done. Yes, this is very important, but we as disciples of Jesus Christ should also always be growing in holiness. Which strictly speaking is not just the absence of certain sins. Holiness also requires the good in our lives to grow through faith and love. Through how we serve and worship God and love our neighbors as ourselves. What then are we to do? Who or what must become our friend, our reflecting mirror, who can tell us what lies within ourselves?

We often do not think about it but Jesus himself calls us his friends. So many times, we exalt him so far above ourselves and put him far away, forgetting the great truth that his very Spirit lies in our hearts and upon our lips. He is a great close and intimate friend that we can count upon at any time, day or night. We just have to make the effort to start the conversation and to keep the relationship active and fruitful. Our Lord himself tells us this in St. John’s Gospel, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.” (John 15:12–17). Jesus as our friend wants an active relationship with us. One that goes out and does the work of the Father daily. Going forth and bearing abundant fruit in God’s good creation. Each night and morning let us look at our lives, get up and look into the mirror to what lies upon the inside. Ask Jesus, “Lord when did I fall short of doing what you desire of me? When was I weak in my faith and chose sin over you? Help me by your grace to do so no more.” We must ask him often to fill our lives with what is good instead of what is bad. That is the great power of growing in holiness, the more we do the good that God wants from us, the more we are able to avoid the bad. Often we become so full of the good, we do not have the time or the room for the bad. The light always overcomes the darkness. And best of all ,we have a friend in Jesus to help us along on every step of the way. When we ask him, “Lord how do I look on the inside”, he as a shinning mirror, will give us the full answer. We may not like it, but we know what it takes to fix the problems that lie within the heart and mind. It is Jesus himself. Start the conversation today. Invite Jesus as Lord in to your hearts, and do not be afraid to call upon him as your dear and faithful friend.