Muddied Waters

2 Corinthians 3:18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Today the Lord revealed his awesome presence during my walk. This is my time that I talk with him. I often get distracted and drift away from his presence. Today was no different. I had to battle my thoughts and keep focused on my conversation with God.

I pass by a lake every morning during my walk and stop to admire and ponder on what God is doing and think of how I can be a more perfect reflection of Him. Most days this small lake is very still and calm in the morning. It reflects with clarity what surrounds it. We are like that in that we reflect , the environment, the people or circumstances that are around us.

The last couple of days the water has had a lot of algae floating on top which tends to distort the reflection somewhat. This whispered volumes to me regarding my own life and how I reflect the Lord. My life sometimes gets clouded with life's algae and the reflection that I portray of Jesus is somewhat distorted. Today like every day I stopped to reflect but along with the algae there were small fish jumping which with the ripples in the water distorted the reflection even more. Then as I was about to leave a larger fish jumped and his ripple effect caused a major distortion of the reflection.

If all this was not enough my heart sank as I stood there feeling bad about how my reflection gets distorted with every sin that I commit and how with the severity of the sin distorts it more. But God is a gracious God and he reveled to me even in that down moment that even though the reflection was distorted it was still there and given a few moments it was restored to perfection. As we confess our sins and ask God to smooth us out he does and our reflection of Him is still there in the midst of that sin and because of his forgiveness it quickly smoothes out and others can see Jesus again.

I want to share an example of that which God reminded me of in that instant. It was 12 years ago. I had been going to an awesome church event where the Spirit was manifesting himself in peoples lives that caught fire for 4 years and I was engulfed in it after a couple of visits. I am skeptical regarding being slain in the Spirit but was open to being proved wrong. On the first night I went I was standing there and people were praying for with hands laid on me but nothing was happening. I had my eyes closed as instructed but just stood there. One person was behind me to catch me and a couple in front praying. After some time they stopped praying and walked away. I still stood there with my eyes closed. Then all of a sudden I felt like if someone took there finger and poked me in the forehead and I started to lose my balance. Thinking that they were trying to force me down I opened my eyes and there was no one within 20 feet of me and I could do nothing but drop to my but. Nothing special like you here just God telling me to let go I guess. I went back a week later and was in the same place standing and a person I used to go to church with prayed with me briefly then moved on. She knew about my skepticism. I just stood there praying in my spirit then just sat down for no reason. Then I lay back just staring at the ceiling. All of a sudden my mind went back 16 years to the birth of my oldest daughter. I had a watch with an alarm that played yellow rose of Texas in my Johnny pocket when she was born and it went off while they were cleaning her up after the birth. it was a hoot and I know God put that thought in my mind as it just soothed me and sent me into uncontrollable laughter. I know this a long story but it becomes relevant in the following.

I was working as a mechanic and had just finished working on a Van for a customer that had kicked my but for a week over a misaligned o ring. My boss knew that it was my fault but still wanted to charge the customer for the excessive hours that I spent to repair it. I protested slightly but reasoned that it was his shop and he was in charge so I shut my mouth. Besides I was paid on flat rate and it was good for my pocket book.

After lunch I sat in my stall on my creeper crying because I felt that I had let God down. I asked for his forgiveness but it was little consolation. What a gracious God we have though.

We had a convenient store there also. I had been witnessing to one of the convenient store clerks for quite a while. After some time of feeling like I had let God down I went out to the store to get a drink. While at the counter that clerk asked me how I knew God was real. I am thinking to myself that God had picked the worst day to use me to witness to anybody let alone a fellow worker who knew what had gone on that day. At the counter we had a row of 5 gallon water bottles that we sold and I had one hand on them and the other on the counter. I started to explain what I had experienced during the two visits to the that church event. All of sudden I started to shake and I could not feel my legs. I was holding myself up with my arms. All the while telling her how I knew God and his son Jesus were real. As soon as I stopped talking I stopped shaking as if it had never happened. I looked at her and she was pinned back against the wall like she had seen a ghost. I asked her what was wrong and she said that my face was white as snow. You see even in the midst of my sin clouded, distorted reflection God he forgave me and smoothed out his reflection so He could show himself real to another person.

How is your reflection of Jesus? Is it sometimes rippled or is it downright distorted? Always remember he loves and will forgive you then he will smooth out your reflection of him.

Crazym