Reflections

What came first: the chicken or the acorn? Or was it the egg or the mighty oak? The juxtaposition doesn’t seem to work and yet you instinctively know what I’m aiming for. Regrettably, the question of creation is one that many scurry from simply because its paradoxical nature confounds us. Why do we hate mysteries so much, particularly those that cause us introspection of our own existence?

Plucking a metaphor from above, who are you: The chicken or the egg? Which came first to this planet? Is your life an incubation chamber warmed by turmoil which surrounds some goop waiting to morph into a super-human chick destined to break out of your shell? Or are you a fully formed cluck hurrying about the world scratching for grains and grubs trying to avoid the thoughts of an eternal rotisserie? Honestly, who are you?

In the New Testament writings which we’ve been told are from Paul, a claim that we were in Christ before the foundations of the world flips any notion of who we really think we are. While we may see through a glass darkly on a variety of issues, the one thing we never want to admit is that the “we” of our public persona is that dark glass which our true soul is trying to look out from the inside. That true soul, the one not considered to possess an ego, is the “You” in Christ before the “you” witnessed today.

There is a memory that I often recall of when, as a young boy, my father would take me into the barber shop to have my hair cut. As you sat in the barber chair, you would look straight ahead into a mirror which ran the entire length of the shop. The reflection in this mirror was the opposite wall which also was a mirror running the length of the shop. I would often sit spell-bound watching the reflection of the barber working on the back of my head in front of me. However, the real magic happened when I would shift my sight just a couple of inches to either side and a cavalcade of reflections would extend into each other deeper and deeper. Then I would try to see just how deep the images went before something wasn’t shown because of the lack of light in the reflection.

Most of our lives we spend looking forward at our past, rarely going deep into what is missing. We are so accustomed to seeing the artifacts of our social construct as being genuine that we fail to acknowledge they lack the light of a perennial wisdom designed to aid in living the abundant life. Who you are, the true You, is deep within and can only be accessed in reflective silence. Unlike opposing mirrors, the deeper you push into this silent identity, the brighter the light of its nature and character manifests.

Consider who is the “You” that was before time and creation. How different is the “you” found today from who You have always been? Maybe it’s time to bring the light out you have hidden deep in the recesses of a non-reflective mind. It’s time to look beyond the vapor of past regrets, trauma and dashed expectation toward a clarifying light of a purposeful soul waiting patiently to be seen in all its glory and splendor. Quit seizing the moment and just silently be in the moment as the light for all to reflect.