W.W.J.P.?

At the end of every week, in the fine print of Friday's post, you'll find my personal mission statement in life: John 3.30. This verse says, essentially (depending on what translation you read), "He must become more; I must become less." My goal in life is to grow more and more into the image of Jesus. Indeed, that is what the very word "Christian" means.

Carol Mead, a remarkable writer with a wonderful gift of finding the holy in the ordinary (please visit her website), said it quite well in a recent post titled, "Mirror Christianity."

Commercials for a high-definition television say that the TV's clear picture results from thousands of tiny mirrors inside the set. Those mirrors produce, as closely as technologically possible, the "exact mirror image of the source material." To explain the high-quality picture, the ads say, "It's the mirrors."

We long for a clear picture of how God looks and acts, and each person has the potential to be one of those tiny mirrors reflecting God's image. If each of us lived only for God, then together we would produce a nearly exact image of the Source. Sadly, most of us can barely reflect God's image accurately for one moment, much less a lifetime, so the image of God appearing through us remains distorted and broken.

Occasionally, though, when we get it right, a glimpse of God appears. When we show selfless love for another person, we reflect the perfect love of God ... so it's not that God chooses to remain completely hidden, as we have the potential to reflect him. The problem is not God.

It's the mirrors.

Speaking of reflecting Christ more perfectly, the title of Carol's piece reminded me of another lesson I recently read regarding a passage in C.S. Lewis' seminal work, "Mere Christianity." It dealt with our prayer life. Lewis says that whenever we pray to "Our Father in Heaven," or "God, the Father" we are, quite literally, claiming to be his son or daughter.

And that means that when we pray, we are "dressing up as Christ." That concept blows me away and makes a sham of all my selfish prayers to just get me through the day, help me lose weight, and bless my latest endeavors. It spins an entirely different perspective on my prayer life.

So it's not so much "What Would Jesus Do?" as it is, "What Would Jesus Pray?"