THE LOOKING GLASS

Straight Lines – (Silverchair)

THE STORY:

Reflections are something that shows the effect, existence, or character of something else. They can be seen everywhere and the looking glass secretly can consume our daily lives and show different reflections if we are not careful. There have been numerous studies on the number of times people use mirrors but one recent study suggests that we look at our reflection up to 20 times per day on average…

My parents always told me that as a kid I would always try to make other people laugh by making funny faces and impressions…One day I guess I was doing it too much and they told me if I made a funny face for too long my face would stay like that forever…well I believed it! Even though what they told me wasn’t true, I think it is very true that our reflections can stay the same for a very long time if we are not careful…and maybe eventually unrecognizable. In this Ten Days In Love blog post I will tell you a story about how one night I was paralyzed by the reflection I saw of myself in the bathroom mirror.

I spent more times in a bathroom then most people…and for different reasons that most people. The bathroom was where I used…and to this day anytime I walk into a bathroom there is always a one to two seconds of flashback/haunting type of feeling and I have struggled to shake for a long time. But it’s where my addiction started and it’s where it would end. The bathroom mirrors are a constant reminder of a night that changed my perspective…I remember I had been out doing my routine and I wanted to come back home to “pick something up”…well when I walked into my bathroom and turned on the light I just froze…I looked at myself and honestly what I saw did not even look like me…so much that I couldn’t move at all. I remember my face looked different…my body looked different…I remember thinking the reflection I saw could not be me and it was almost scary. I had lost a lot of weight because I was hardly eating anymore, I had these dark areas under my eyes because of my lack of sleep and struggle with paranoia from drugs. It was one of the worst reflections I had ever seen. As I stared in the mirror I was wondering if this was the same reflection I was showing the rest of the world? I looked down at my right arm and saw the tattoo on my forearm and tears just immediately started to flow down my face (I had designed a tattoo for my forearm that depicts a sun with rays and a circular shield in the center. In the center of the shield there is a cross with PS 84:11 tattooed vertically across the shield). I remember locking myself in the bathroom that night and through all the exhaustion and fear I cried so much that I cried myself to sleep on my bathroom floor. The next morning I woke up staring at my tattoo and I felt a strength come over me…and I got up slowly and walked out of that bathroom…

THE QUESTION:

Who did you see when you looked in the mirror this morning? Was it you? Did you like what you saw? Have you ever not recognized yourself? What do you want your true reflection to look like?

THE ANSWER:

“Wake me up lower the fever, walking in a straight line. Set me on fire in the evening, everything will be fine. Waking up strong in the morning, walking in a straight line. Lately I’m a desperate believer…but walking in a straight line….I don’t need no time to say, there’s no changing yesterday.
If we keep talking and I keep walking in straight lines…”

Silverchair is an Australian alternative rock band that was formed in 1992 and led by lead singer and guitarist Daniel Johns. The band members were just barely 15 years old when their first album reached record sales of 2.5 million copies worldwide, quickly becoming a top ten in the U.S. and a number one hit in Australia and New Zealand. From their 2007 Young Modern album, “Straight Lines” is a biographical song about John’s personal fight with anorexia nervosa, clinical depression, and a rare but serious case of reactive arthritis in the late 90s and how he was able to overcome these struggles. Johns stated when he was at his thinnest he weighed 110 pounds…and spent nearly two years of his life in a bed, unable to play an instrument and barely able to walk… In the powerful music video release of Straight Lines, Johns victory over his illness and addictions is shown through his ability to walk, run, play his guitar again, and even dance. When asked about this experience and how it affected him personally, Johns says, “It was a pretty hard period of time…I couldn’t really do anything…and it gave me a whole new perspective and appreciation…”

Psalm 84:11 | For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

I think we all have things in our life that we fight on a daily basis. It does not have to be a drug addiction. Sometimes these things can paralyze us and as we get older, we find ourselves learning to walk all over again…just like we did when were kids, one step at a time until we learn to walk in a straight line.

Psalm 84:11. That’s the verse I have tattooed on my forearm. I wanted that tattoo to help me fight my battles. That verse helped save my life and help me learn to walk again. It is one of the first things I see in the mirror and it’s the first thing someone else sees when they shake my hand. It is a constant reminder of God’s love and grace that He has shown me and I will use it to tell anyone my story whenever they ask me about it. I can say with certainty that I now recognize my reflection every day and I pray I continue to show my true reflection to everyone I meet…to the point where it just gets stuck like that. I will never forget that night in the bathroom and what I saw in the mirror…ever. In Straight Lines, Johns sings, “I don’t need no time to say, there’s no changing yesterday. If we keep talking and I keep walking in straight lines.” I think the way we daily walk in life will shape our truest reflection. My hope since the beginning of this journey is to show you how anything is possible, even when you start to doubt, just stop, have faith and hope, but greater than that put love in your heart. The two things I want you to really understand from this blog post: 1) We can all learn to walk again 2) God really does love you…He loves us so much that He wants to walk with us everyday. Let’s change our reflections and walk together in straight lines of = LOVE. Nothing is impossible…

1 Corinthians 13:12-13

12 For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known. 13 And now these three remain:faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Watch, listen, and share what happens when you decide to live the next 10 days in love.

(Listen below to Straight Lines by Silverchair)