By Bobby R. Henry, Sr.
Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
Romans 7:24 (Read Romans 7:14-25)
One of the best examples that has ever been presented to me, as it pertains to struggling with life’s dilemmas, came in the expression; “Walking up a mirror”.
Engaged in conversation with friends where trust abounds, one felt comfort-able enough to really expose their inner most fears.
We talked about different fights which occurred between the inner and outer man as well as some spiritual confrontations.
These confrontations cause gut wrenching pains to shoot through the body like a fireworks show on New Year’s Eve.
The roller coaster ride of sensations ebbed and flowed through the gambit of feelings with each starburst of color.
Yes, they were painful, yet beautiful.
To be in the company of others who can understand your scrapes not because they have experienced them, but because they have experienced the pain of the ugly that’s reflected in their own mirror from their choices.
Walking up a mirror can you imagine how complicated, frustrating and impossible that task is?
With every failed effort and recorded impulse the entire feat is reflected immediately back into the eyes and psyche of each individual climber. This image is burned and etched into their minds and beings with the force of a Jedi Knights’ laser saber.
Scared emotionally, the climber continues and realizes that their journey has ended right where it begins.
“If you always do what you’ve always done, then you will always get what you have always got”.
The walk up the mirror can’t be completed until the smooth, lifeless surface of the mirror is broken, and the razor sharp jagged edges lend themselves to instruments for climbing.
There is bound to be bloodshed due to the cuts, scrapes and lacerated limbs, however there is movement towards the end.
As in life, with no movement there is no evidence of an effort to try to progress even if the progress is in the wrong direction, you will learn.
Without a doubt it cost something to live and to learn; we pay one way or another.
Do we want to spend our lives trying to walk up a mirror because it’s smooth free from obstacles, where there are no barriers and impediments, but there is no progress or do we want to break the mirror, feel the pain, the cuts, and the disappointments and experience what it means to find the right way to go and grow?
“Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me”. John 14:6
I believe I understand better what it means to choose to climb up on the rough side of the mountain. It has new meaning when you have been exposed to walking up a mirror.
The way may never be easy, but if it is His will, the ending will be ever so pleasant.
“Oh Lord when we stumble, fall or go astray, please bring us back to your path your presence your purpose, your way these things I so humbly pray- Amen”. Bobby R. Henry, Sr.